Fur and Field
by Windsong
Summary: First story I ever wrote.  Alternate Universe like NOBODY'S business, OCs too.  Your typical 'throw new armors in and see what happens' fic, except I went NUTS with setting and plot.
1. Prologue

Hello everyone! This is my first fic, please don't be too hard…Well, here goes nothing. 

Oh yeah, I don't own Ronin Warriors, -sniff- some other people do. But I do own the new stuff! -grins-

* * *

Fur and Field_  
By Windsong  
_**Prologue**  
Written January 2000

In the beginning, the armor of Talpa was created from sunsteel. Talpa's armor was split into the nine armors of the Ronin Warriors and the Dark Warlords.

But there was not one but three original armors created in the beginning. There was the armor of Talpa, but there were two others, which were given to two families in another world, different from Earth. These two families were instructed to keep the two other armors hidden, and use them only in dire need. These two new armors were the armors of Fauna and Flora.

The Dynasty had conquered hundreds of worlds before invading earth. What do I mean by "hundreds of worlds?" Well, there are hundreds of other universes rather than our own. And on one of these other worlds, called Serusin, the four armors were created, and the two armors of Fauna and Flora were housed.

When Serusin was invaded, the armors of Fauna and Flora emerged. Eventually, all the people who lived in Serusin were captured, save a few who came to Earth. The bearers of Fauna and Flora were two of these refugees.

Now, all the armors are on Earth, but the Ronin Warriors and the bearers of Fauna and Flora do not know of each other's existence. This has the potential to become very interesting indeed…

* * *

Well, that's the setup! Short, I know, but it doesn't need to be any longer. The fic, however, has the potential to get very long, but I'm going to write super fast, and hopefully I won't get writer's block.

And please note: This is the first fic I have ever written. It starts off slow, but as the story progresses my writing improves. So please, stick around until the end!

Ja ne!

Windsong - windsong 137 at gmail dot com

"AMBUKIZZIE!" -One of the Freak Hallway's numerous war cries


	2. Dreams

Hello minna! Here's the first chapter of Fur and Field! Enjoy!

Oh yeah, before I forget…I don't own RW, some other very lucky people do. However, the new stuff is MINE!!! Miiiiiinnnee! -Grins-

Enjoy!

* * *

Fur and Field  
_By Windsong_**  
Chapter One: Dreams**  
Written January 2000 

"And so the chase begins. The true battle is here."  
-Captain Feyarre, from Figgy's fanfic Lady Chaos

Midterms were coming up at the University, and all the Ronins were studying frantically. "Jeez, who knew archaeology was so hard?" Grumped Kento as he slammed the book shut and sat back in his chair.

"Maybe it's hard for you because you've barely looked at that book this semester," said Ryo.

"Oh, and like you've studied any more than me, you soccer freak?"

Right before they really started arguing, Sai came out of the kitchen, wearing an apron. "Dinner's served, everyone!"

"I'm starved! Let's eat!" Bellowed Kento as he moved to the table with startling swiftness.

"Well, obviously studying hasn't done anything to his appetite," said Rowen.

After dinner, mores studying ensued until a fed up and sleepy Mia put a stop to it. "You've been studying since the moment you got home! It's almost midnight! You've still got a week to study! Now GO TO SLEEP!"

One by one, Rowen, Ryo, Sai, Sage, and Kento shut their books and headed upstairs to their bedrooms. No one wanted to argue with Mia's stern tone and flashing eyes.

Sage mind's was fuzzy as he changed into his pajamas. Still going over math theorems in his head, he crawled into bed and drifted off to sleep.

That night, Sage had the weirdest dreams of his life._  
_

_------ _

_…A cry like a bird of prey that filled the air, a sound so fierce and sorrowful that it tore at the heartstrings…_

_…A flash of purple, metallic and yet warm, soft, that spoke of the whisper of fur…_

_…A flash of gold, sunny, shining like steel, speaking of fields of endless green, the dusky smell of flowers…_

_…Laughing green eyes with streaks of mahogany in them, warm, gentle, and yet sad…_

_…Stormy silver-gray eyes with streaks of gold in them, proud, stern, and yet amused, with a sorrowful tale hidden in their depths…_

_…The quick noiseless slice of two weapons, leaving signatures in the air…_

_…A gentle laugh, ringing through the soft silence… _

And so on though the night, repeating over and over and over…

------

When Sage came down for breakfast, his eyes were half-closed and had dark circles under them. "Wow, Sage, what happened? You look like you were hit by a truck," remarked Kento.

"Just some bad dreams…hey, where's Ro? Is he sleeping late again?"

"What, you got so little sleep that you forgot how much Rowen loves his? If you want to try and wake him up, you're more than welcome." Remarked Sai with a bemused grin.

And so passed the rest of the day. Rowen came down halfway through the morning bustle and ended up eating breakfast on the bus, as usual. Classes whizzed by; Sage nearly fell asleep in Calculus. They came home and studied like mad until Mia yelled with them to go to sleep.

As Sage changed into his nightclothes, he wondered if the dreams meant anything, and if they would appear in his sleep that night. He decided that the dreams were just a freak accident, and fell asleep to the lullaby of Kento reciting archaeological terms.

That night, the dreams visited him again.

Little did poor Sage know that the dreams would haunt his sleep that entire week.

By the end of the day before midterms, Sage was so tired that he really did fall asleep in Calculus, and he looked so fatigued by the time he got home that even Kento new something was wrong. "Hey, Sage, you okay? You look like a wreck. Bad dreams again?" queried Sai.

"Yeah…" mumbled Sage, half-asleep.

"Maybe you should tell us about it."

"All right…" agreed Sage.

Sage gathered his sleepy wits. "Well, they're not really dreams like you would normally think of them. They're more like flashes of images and snippets of sound. I'd hear laughing…the sounds of people talking, but I couldn't hear the words…a scream like a bird of prey, it's a beautiful sound. And then the images… I saw flashes of color, weapons so sharp that they could sever the very atoms of the air. But the most frequent image were these two pairs of eyes…One of them was green, the most caring, gentle eyes I've ever seen…but the other pair is what really sticks in my mind. They're gray, fierce, proud, and yet humorous…They're like the eyes of a wolf, wild and intelligent. The images of those two pairs of eyes have been getting more and more frequent in my dreams…if I ever saw those eyes in real life, I would recognize them instantly…" Sage's voice drifted off.

"They sound like visions, not dreams," remarked Rowen.

"Yeah, they might be visions…but I've never heard a bird of prey cry like that. And I've never met anyone with eyes like the ones I saw in my dreams…I have a feeling they're trying to tell me something, but what?"

* * *

Hope you all liked it! I can't believe it only took me a couple of hours to write that…I'll be writing a lot more now that I've got the idea in my head… 

Ja ne!

Oh, and about that quote in the beginning...it seemed to fit, and I LOVE Figgy and think that quote's really cool, so...yeah. GO READ FIGGY! -waves Ninja-to threateningly-

Windsong - windsong 137 at gmail dot com

"He drives like TACO!" -My fencing coach, Eugene


	3. Contact

Konnichiwa minna-san! Well, here I am, writing when I should be doing homework…oh well. Enjoy the fic, peoples!

Oh yeah, I don't own the Ronin Warriors. Some other very lucky people do. I wish I owned them, though. However, the new stuff is mine! MINE! MUAHAHAHA!

* * *

Fur and Field  
_By Windsong_  
**Chapter Two: Contact  
**Written January 2000

Midterms passed. Thanks to the twenty cups of tea that Sage drank that morning, he was able to stay awake long enough to finish his exams. Even so, caffeine does wear off, and Sage fell asleep on the bus, missed his stop, and had to walk back to Mia's.

The dreams persisted for two more days, then left as suddenly as they had come. Sage slept for about 24 hours or so, and woke up feeling much better.  
A few weeks later, Mia was invited to a party, and dragged the guys along. When they arrived at the party, Kento immediately flew to the buffet table. The rest of the guys pretty much sat at a table and looked uncomfortable.

Mia buzzed around and talked with other people. "I didn't know Mia was that talkative and outgoing," said Ryo.

"What, afraid that your koi might find another man?" teased Rowen, then yelped and winced when Ryo kicked him under the table.

Kento came up, a filled plate in his hand. "You guys should try the food here. It's great." The other Ronins took Kento's advice.

As they were finishing up their meal, Mia began to talk to two other ladies. Soon Mia gestured to the table where the guys were sitting, and Mia led the two young women to the table. The guys stood up.

"Guys, I'd like you to meet two acquaintances of mine. They're foreign exchange students from the kingdom of Rankalia. They're names are Hilaris Monoceros and Halicyon Pericolas." Rowen looked up.

The two women were young, but older than any of the guys-they were in their early 20's. The older of the two was talking to the younger in a low voice with her head down. Rowen was able to hear what they were saying—not like it did him much good, because they were talking in a language Rowen couldn't understand. Obviously the other understood the strange language, and answered in like. Then the older one looked up and said in Japanese, "I'm very pleased to meet you." Rowen was surprised; there was no sign of any accent. She spoke Japanese as if she had lived in Tokyo all her life. Rowen heard Sage gasp and looked at him. Sage looked like he was going to have a heart attack. He staggered a few steps back.

"Sage, are you all right? What's wrong? Asked Mia, hurrying over to him.

Sage was still short of breath. "Those eyes…" he gasped. "Those eyes are from my dream!"

Rowen looked again at the two women and saw within their faces the eyes Sage had described the night before the finals. The eyes of the younger lady were green, and you could see the warmth in them, and also her worry over Sage, and lying beneath that was a deep sadness. The eyes of the older one were much more striking. Her eyes were grey, and showed that her spirit was wild and fierce. There seemed to be an eternal fire lit in their depths. Rowen thought, _I could see why Sage was startled, even if he hadn't recognized them._ "Who are you?" Rowen demanded.

"I believe Mia has already told you," replied the older one in a calm voice. "My name is Hilaris. My friend's name is Halicyon. We're very pleased to meet you all. Is your friend all right?" She asked worriedly.

"Should I go for help?" Halicyon asked of Sage. Her voice was sweet and gentle, with a detectable accent that gave her a strange, rolling inflection. "You're very pale."

"No, I'll be fine," Rowen heard Sage say, but he still looked as if he had seen a ghost. Two ghosts.

"Hilaris and Halicyon are going to stay with us for a while, because they haven't been able to find a room. Is that all right?" Mia asked, looking worriedly at Sage.

"That's fine," said Ryo quickly.

------

On the way home, Sage thought, _Who are you, Hilaris Monoceros? Who are you, Halicyon Pericolas? Are you friend or foe? Can you be trusted? You're not like the rest of us, are you? Are you normal? Are you from the Dynasty? What are you dong here?_

* * *

Well, that's chapter two, minna! Hope you've enjoyed it! My writing spirit Avirilli has possessed me once again, so here I am at midnight, typing away madly. Oh well…not like I don't have a good relationship with my writing spirit. It's just that she possesses me at the worst possible times…

Ja ne!

Windsong - windsong 137 at gmail dot com

"If you could see my brain right now, it would be smiling. I have a huge brain-smile on right now. From end to end." -Dad


	4. Conversations

Konnichiwa, minna-san! I hope you've been following the story, because if you haven't, I have the definite feeling you're really lost right now. Well, I'll shut up now and start writing!

Windsong: -Doesn't realize she's still talking- Oh, come on Avirilli! Haven't I written enough for one night?!  
Avirilli the writing spirit: I thought you liked writing fics! Now shut up and start writing! The faster you write, the sooner I can leave you alone!…By the way, did you know that you're audience is still watching you?  
Windsong: -Looks around and sees hundreds of eyes watching her, waiting for her to start writing- -Squeaks and hides in a corner- Gomen nasai, minna-san…I'll start writing, Avirilli…

Stuff in ( ) are Author's Notes.

* * *

Fur and Field_  
By Windsong  
_**Chapter Three: Conversations**  
Written January 2000 

Ryo was outside playing soccer with Yuli. Mia was typing away at her computer. Rowen was busy doing his Astrology homework. Kento and Sai were doing acrobatics. (Remember what Kento and Sai were doing after they beat Talpa the first time, and Ryo looks out the window? That's what they're doing now.) Sage was watching Hilaris and Halicyon, who were walking through the garden.

The two foreign exchange students had been staying at Mia's for three weeks now, and Sage still hadn't been able to learn anything about them.

Well, that's not entirely true. He knew that they were quiet, respectful, courteous, unassuming, and _very_ evasive. Whenever he would try to corner and question one of them, the other one would appear out of thin air and ask a question in that language of theirs. Then the one he had cornered would smile, excuse herself from Sage's company, and make good her escape. Sage was very irritated by now, and was _sure_ that they were telepathic.

Sage got so fed up that he decided to have a conversation with Rowen. Leaning on the doorframe of his best friend's room, Sage sighed heavily and said, "Ro, I'm getting really worried about those two girls. I don't know _anything_ about them. I try to corner them, and they slip away like shadows.

"Not only that," Sage continued, "But I also don't know whether they're trustworthy or not. The Dynasty won't take their defeat forever; they're bound to attack again, and the Ronin Warriors will have to be there when they do. If we keep leaving to protect the world, and keep coming home exhausted, like we always do, then they're sure to be suspicious. What are we going to say to them if they start asking questions?

"Add to that that I don't know whether Halicyon and Hilaris are really spies that were sent from the dynasty. Who knows if they're sent to watch us and tell Talpa when it's the right time to strike?" Sage shook his head worriedly. "I don't know Ro. I have a really bad feeling about those two…"

Rowen, caught in the middle of his Astrology homework, chewed a pen in thought. "Well, I don't know—I don't want to assume anything about them until I know more. You should never assume, you know…But I see what you mean. Unless we learn more about those two, we could be in serious trouble. Why don't we try to ask them together? That way, they won't be able to slip away. Either that, or we ask both of them at once."

"That's a good idea!"

------

Hilaris and Halicyon were walking and talking in the garden in their own language. "I'm glad we were able to find such comfortable quarters here." Halicyon said, smiling.

"Yes," Hilaris said thoughtfully, "But that Sage has been getting quite annoying. He's so interested in us—and he was so shocked when he saw me. I wonder why?"

"Well, I guess he's frustrated because we've been avoiding all of his questions. It isn't very nice of us."

"Yeah…" Hilaris laughed softly. "We have been annoying him, haven't we? Every time he tries to find out more about us, we just slip away from him. It's a pity we have to hide from him, but it's necessary." Hilaris frowned suddenly. "I wonder if the Dynasty's going to attack this world as well? I mean, Earth is a very tempting prize…there's so much ill-will here, and so many of us fled to Earth after they conquered that they might follow us." Hilaris sighed.

"Oh, I hope not," Halicyon said quickly. This planet is so beautiful—Earth is just like Serusin was…and the people here are so kind, like Mia. It's almost as good as home."

"But because it's so like Serusin, the Dynasty will be sure to try and conquer it. Then it'd be exactly like Serusin is now," Hilaris said bitterly. "Hali, can't you feel the menace here? Not everyone here has a kind and gentle heart like you do. I'm almost sure the Dynasty is going to try to conquer Earth—and I'm also sure that I'll do anything to stop them."

"**I**, Hil? It's more like _we_. We'll do anything to protect this world. But if we leave to protect Earth and confront the Dynasty, won't Mia and the others be suspicious?"

"Let them be suspicious," scoffed Hilaris. "Would you rather let the Dynasty have this world as well?"

* * *

I have the vaguest feeling that there are some extremely confused people out there. If you're wondering what the heck is going on, let me explain. (I should have explained this before.) This is set right after they beat Talpa the first time (around the time when Ryo learns about the armor of Inferno.) And no, I did not introduce two new characters at the end of this chapter. Hali is Halicyon's nickname and Hil is Hilaris' nickname. So that's what you need to know to understand my fanfic at the moment. 

Hope you're enjoying it! Ja ne!

Windsong: -To Avirilli- There! I finished writing the chapter! Are you happy now?!  
Avirilli: Yes, I think you're doing very well under my guidance.  
Windsong: Well, I'm not writing any more fics for a while! That's it! I'm resting my poor fingers and brain cells for a week! -crosses arms-  
Avirilli: Don't make me possess you again…

Windsong - windsong 137 at gmail dot com

"There's a good fish." -My dad, praising me at 1 AM


	5. Engagement

Konnichiwa, minna! Glad you came back to read my fanfic! At midnight last night, Avirilli suddenly had the time to pay a visit, so here I am, writing chapter Four. -Sigh- Anyways, here it is!

Oh yeah, I don't own RW, some lucky people do. I wish I did though. I also don't own any other ideas that I might tread on. (I think I steal from some other Anime shows.) But the new characters that aren't in the RW series belong to me! They're mine! MINE MINE MINE! MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE! -Grins somewhat crazily-

One warning. This is _really_ going into AU. I mean, this is the doorway to the entire AU universe that I've thought up. Everything from here on out is going to be slightly skewed. You've been warned. Rather than that, enjoy the story!

And for all of you who have only seen the dubbed version and don't know the character's Japanese names, Byakuen is White Blaze. (I think Byakuen sounds cooler, so I use that instead.)

Enjoy!

( ) Author's Notes  


* * *

Fur and Field  
_By Windsong_  
**Chapter Four: Engagement  
**Written February 2000 

Kento yawned and slumped down further in his chair. Geology was cool, but not when Sensei Kasana taught it, and not when it was last period. He shivered—some baka had looked at the calendar instead of the temperature, and the air conditioning was on, making the temperature in the building feel like near zero.

He glanced at the clock. Ten minutes left until he was home free. _Man, this is torture!_ he thought with irritation as he sighed, ruffling the hair of the girl in front of him…

_Wait a minute…_ he thought. _I recognize that head…_

Kento's jaw dropped as Halicyon calmly raised her hand and answered whatever question Sensei Kasana was asking.

Somehow, the ten boring minutes passed, and the bell rang. Outside, Kento saw Halicyon's back as she walked towards her locker. "Hey! Halicyon! Wait up!" he yelled after her, running to catch up. "I didn't know you were majoring in archaeology, too," he said as they got their stuff in their lockers and walked outside to catch the bus.

Halicyon laughed. "I'm not. I just needed some extra credits, and since this class ties into my major I decided to take it."

"Oh. Then what is your major, then?"

"Botany. Oh, look! There's the bus! Come on!" she said as she ran after it.

Kento followed her, continuing the conversation on the bus. "So, Sensei's a real bore, ne?"

------

For once, they didn't have too homework, and it was a bright, sunny day. "Hey guys, since you don't have much to do, why don't we all go to the park?" suggested Mia.

Ryo's eyes lit up. "Yeah! I can practice for the soccer game tomorrow!" Everybody else sweatdropped.

All of them piled into Mia's car and drove to the park. Hilaris, Halicyon, Byakuen, and Yuli came along too.

Just as they all sat down for a picnic dinner, the sky turned grey with storm clouds. "Hey, why'd it get so dark all of a sudden? It was sunny a minute ago…" said Kento.

Lightning flashed. When the brilliant light faded, a gate to the dynasty's realm towered above them.

"What? I thought we got rid of Talpa for a while!" gasped Sai.

"Well, I guess they didn't learn that we can kick their butts!" Ryo said. "Armor up!"

"No, wait! We can't!" said Sage. "Not if Hilaris and Halicyon are around! If they're spies of the Dynasty..."

"Well, I don't see them," said Rowen, looking around.

"They probably went off to play with Yuli or something," Ryo said impatiently. "Whatever, they're not here! ARMOR OF WILDFIRE! DAO JIN!"

They all called their armors and waited for whatever would come out of those dark and menacing gates. Byakuen snarled softly, his tail twitching from side to side.

------

Hilaris looked up at the darkening sky. _This looks like trouble…_

Suddenly, the dynasty gate cast his shadow over the group. _The Dynasty has arrived here? That fast?! _

She looked over at Halicyon, catching her gaze, then glanced over at some nearby bushes. Halicyon nodded almost imperceptibly, and they both slipped away like two shadows.

Another flash of lightning streaked across the sky, and thunder boomed.

Byakuen roared.

Sai spied a figure standing on top of the gates. Dressed in black subarmor, his cape flowed behind him in the wind, and he held a stave in one hand. "Look!" cried Sai, pointing.

The figure leaped off the gates and landed softly in front of them. The Ronin Warriors shifted into fighting stances.

The man in front of them had long, blond hair, startlingly light-colored against his dark attire. His armor had a charcoal-grey underlayment with jet-black plates over it. (You know how (for example) Ryo's armor has a white underlayment with red plates? Well, the white part is charcoal-grey, and the red part is black.) His velvet cape was the color of blood. His stave was made of iron, topped with a golden orb with a scorpion on it.

His jade-green eyes flicked from one person to the other before settling on Ryo's face. Byakuen growled. "What a welcoming committee. So you are the Ronin Warriors that Master Talpa told me about. Well, let me guarantee you, the pleasure is all mine." He bowed very slightly, straightening again quickly.

"Who are you?" Ryo snarled.

"I am Kionden, Master of Pestilence."

"Master of what?" asked Kento.

Rowen explained quickly, "Pestilence means disease, or sickness, so he's the master of disease."

"Oh."

Sage asked, "What happened to the other warlords?"

Kionden smiled. It was not a nice smile. "Master Talpa decided they were not of use any longer so he…disposed of them."

"What? Talpa just _killed_ them?" Sai gasped.

"No…he didn't kill them…they're in storage, so to speak." Kionden had a demonic gleam in his eye when he finished.

Ryo asked, "So you came to take their place? If you're as stupid as the other Warlords, you don't stand a chance."

Kionden shook his head as he smiled evilly. "I came just to give you a warning, but if you insist on fighting…I don't see why not. Prepare to face one of the Twin Evils!"

Before the Ronin Warriors could react, the Master of Pestilence had leaped into the air and was calling his surekill. "Sickness Lightning Arrow!" He cried, pointing his staff at Ryo.

A lightning bolt streaked down from the sky to connect with his stave. The orb and scorpion glowed before a bolt of blood-red lightning shot out of the staff towards Ryo. Byakuen leaped towards Ryo and pushed him out of the way, taking the force of the hit instead of Ryo. The blast threw him into a tree trunk. "Byakuen!" Ryo and Mia screamed, running towards the tiger.

The tiger looked up at Ryo, and Mia saw that his eyes were clouded. He sneezed. "Byakuen, are you okay?" He asked. The tiger mewed, a sound he only made when he was either hurt or sick. He mewed again before blacking out.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY TIGER!?!?!" Shouted Ryo, whirling to face the smiling warlord.

"I told you, I'm the master of pestilence. If my bolt hits you, you will sicken and eventually die—unless, of course, you can find a cure."

"I'm gonna wipe that smile right off your face!" yelled Ryo, lunging at Kionden. Naturally, he missed.

"Dear me, you're so rude…let me teach you some manners! Sickness Lightning Arrow!" This time, he just pointed at the general group.

"Scatter!" Yelled Kento as they all dove out of the way.

The bolt hit the ground. Like a wave, the grass browned and died; the plants withered, the trees dropped their leaves. The circle of sickness and death spread until it affected a circle 20 yards in diameter.

The Ronin Warriors stood up slowly, amazed. "Wow, look at what he did! He _destroyed_ the plants!" Sai said, looking around.

"I hold the stave of Devastation. I can destroy the life around me." Kionden said, looking pleased with himself.

"Enough! You're going to kill everything!" Rowen yelled. Rowen shot several arrows at him, and was shocked when he dodged them all so easily. "So slow…" said Kionden, shaking his head. "You have to be faster than that if you want to catch me."

Suddenly, Kionden leaped at Rowen and gave him a hard blow over the head with the devastation stave before Rowen could react. Rowen dropped to the ground, unconscious. The master of pestilence then grabbed him and threw him into one of the trees.

"Rowen!" Sage yelled.

He turned to Kionden, his eyes flashing. "SHIN-EEEEE! Thunderbolt Cut!"

Kionden blocked Halo's surekill with his stave. When the bright light of Sage's surekill disappeared, Kionden was still standing there. Other than the fact that he no longer had a cape on, he was fine. "Not just slow, but weak too. No wonder Talpa got rid of the Warlords if they couldn't defeat brats like yourselves."

Then, Kionden sprung at the closest person—Kento. He flipped, landed behind him, and whacked Kento hard on the back. Kento fell to the floor, momentarily stunned, and then was thrown into a tree.

"Two down, three to go…"Kionden grinned.

This time, they all jumped at him. Ryo tried to attack him from the front, distracting him while Sage attacked him from the back. Kionden somehow knew that Sage was sneaking up behind him, and jumped out of the way. Sage barely avoided skewering Ryo. Sai attacked, and when he jumped into the air to avoid the attack Ryo jumped up too, to try and stop him. Kionden grabbed Ryo and threw him into the ground, stunning him, and then attacked with his surekill. Sage got Ryo out of the way, just in time.

"Only two more…" said the master of pestilence, and laughed.

Then Sage tried to grab him from behind as Sai attacked him from the front. He used the butt of his stave to hit Sage hard in the gut, and then he ducked Sai's attack and smashed him hard on the jaw. He then grabbed both of them and threw them into the trees.

The master of pestilence looked at the unconscious Ronins with disdain. "Child's play," he said, dusting his hands. "Now all that's left is to take them back to Lord Talpa."

"Over my dead body!" shouted a stern, female voice.

------

Sage was half-conscious, able to see, hear and think but not move. "Over my dead body!" He heard someone yell. He looked up, and saw two other armored figures, standing on top of the gate. Somehow, he knew that they were friends that he could trust the moment he saw them. One wore purple armor. Her helmet was topped with three long silver feathers (think Pokèmon: A pidgeot's crown, except with only three feathers) that streamed down her back. Her symbol (e.g.: Sage's is the stylized thunderbolt) was something that looked like a Chinese dragon face, except with really long whiskers. By her sides hung two sheaths, which held twin ninja-to. The handles were decorated with purple and silver ribbons that hung from each pommel.

Her companion wore sunny yellow armor. Her helmet had three long, golden, flowering vines that cascaded down her back to about waist level. Her symbol was a stylized flower with four petals. Lashed onto her back was a staff decorated with flowering vines and leaves. The staff was topped with a scimitar and the other end was daggerlike. Both edges gleamed with a cruel sharpness.

Sage would have fallen over if he wasn't on the floor already. _Those colors…they're from my dream…_

"Who are you?" snarled Kionden.

"I am Fauna, the Storm Falcon, bearer of the Beast Swords." Said the purple-armored one, whipping out her twin ninja-to. Their silver blades gleamed with a cold brilliance.

"And I am Flora, The Darkness Aster, bearer of the Vine Staff." Said the other.

"Well, what do you want? Don't look for a fight, or I'll beat you up as easily as I beat up the other Ronins."

"Oh yeah? Try me!" yelled the Storm Falcon, and she jumped down from the gates with a cry like a bird of prey. _My dreams have told me all of this!_ Sage thought in shock.

Kionden blocked Fauna's onslaught. Then came a fierce and swift battle, a flurry of attack and parry and repulse and counter-attack and dodge and thrust and the sound of sunsteel clashing with iron, so fast that even Sage's trained eye could barely follow. He could tell that these two were masters of the blade/stave.

Kionden leaped into the air, trying to get some breathing room. Fauna jumped up as well, fighting him in the air until he was forced back onto the ground. Exasperated, the master of Pestilence leaped up and shouted his surekill. Instead of leaping out of the way, she brought her beast swords in front of her to block. When the dark lightning disappeared, Fauna gave a small, hiccuping cough. "That's it?" she asked scornfully. Then she screamed something in a language that Sage couldn't understand, and leaped at Kionden again, sword points glittering with a light of their own.

While Kionden was busy fighting off Fauna, the other one unfastened her staff and leaped down, landing behind Kionden, and swept his feet out from under him. Kionden fell and rolled, barely avoiding the sharp, dagger-like end of Flora's staff. Kionden jumped to his feet—to find that Flora's scimitar-like blade was at his throat. "Fauna, go!" She yelled as she held Kionden motionless.

Fauna twirled her ninja-to around her before crossing them in front of her body. "Beast Rage Scream!" She yelled. The silver blades glowed before they shot out a blast of energy, aimed straight at Kionden. Flora jumped away.

Kionden saw in his mind's eye what seemed like all the animals in the world attacking him, all of them roaring their anger. He stood, frozen with horror and fear.

The blond-haired Warlord was thrown off his feet with the force of the blast and thrown several feet away. When he recovered from the shock and tried to get up, he found a blade aimed at his heart and two blades crossed in front of his throat.

"Go," said the yellow-armored woman icily in a quiet voice that somehow carried to the edges of the battlefield. "Tell your Lord Talpa to beware, for we are guarding this world now." The master of Pestilence nodded mutely and teleported away.

Fauna looked at Mia. "Quickly! Take the tiger to the veterinarian with all haste, before his disease progresses." Fauna and Flora helped Mia to pick up the tiger and place it into the back of Mia's Jeep. A few minutes after Mia drove off, they looked at the Ronin Warriors. "It was lucky that none of them were hit with the blast." The Darkness Aster said. "Are you going to be okay? Kionden hit you pretty hard with his surekill."

"I'll be fine, you shouldn't worry so much. Look at the damage that idiot did to the land!" exclaimed The Storm Falcon, looking around. "Can you heal it, Flora?"

"Let's see…" said the yellow-armored woman, and she bent down to examine the grass. She looked up at her comrade, and nodded. She stuck the dagger end of her staff into the ground and closed her eyes. The silence within the clearing was tense with anticipation.

Soon, green/gold waves began radiating out of her staff. The grass turned green again, the plants stood upright and healthy, the trees grew new leaves. Soon it was as if Kionden had never touched the clearing.

The two looked around and bowed to the fallen figures of the Ronins before jumping away as the first drops of rain began to fall.

* * *

Yay! I finally got to the fighting! -grins- Well, that's chapter four, Minna! Whaddaya think? 

Chapter Five will probably be up soon, especially if Avirilli posseses me again…the Oni…

Windsong - windsong 137 at gmail dot com

"Bow, underlings, before Zappy, LORD OF THE HAMSTERDAM UNDERWORLD!" -Me feeling eccentric, concerning my friend's hamster


	6. Revelation

Hi people! I'm back! I decided to take a bit of a break, I was tired of writing so much. I locked Avirilli up in my closet -insert muffled screaming and pounding here- so I could get some peace and quiet for a couple of weeks. Well, now that my fingers and my mind are rested, I guess I'll let Avi out. -Walks to closet, unlocks the five padlocks on it, and opens the door- Hi, Avirilli!

Avirilli: You baka! You locked me up in a stuffy old closet for FIVE WEEKS! SHIN-EEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! -Avirilli whips out her wand and starts shooting at Windsong-  
Windsong: -runs for her life- Hey! Avirilli, stoppit! Ow! Gomen Nasai! Ow! I said, STOP!!!! -She stops, turns around, and whips Ninja-to out of hammerspace- -Chases after Avirilli- -Stops- -Realizes you're sitting there, looking scared and rather confused- -sweatdrops- I better get down to writing, ne? -Grabs Avirilli and shakes her- GOMEN! Okay?  
Avirilli: -Swallows- okay...let's get down to business, shall we?  
-Windsong prepares to type when she hears Avirilli cough behind her-  
Windsong: What now?  
Avirilli: Baka! What about the disclaimers?  
Windsong: -sweatdrops- Oh yeah...I don't own RW, some other lucky people do. I wish I did though. But the new characters that aren't in the RW series belong to me! They're mine! MINE MINE MINE! MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE! Grins somewhat crazily Wait a minute...did you just call me a baka, Avi?  
Avirilli: We'll argue later! Now WRITE! Points to computer  
Windsong: -Glares at Avirilli, then sighs- All right...

Enjoy!

Stuff in ( ) are Author's Notes

* * *

Fur and Field  
_By Windsong_  
**Chapter Five: Revelation  
**Written March 2000 

Sai opened his eyes to see a white ceiling—and winced as he felt his very sore neck and chin begin to throb. _What am I doing here? Where _is _here, for that matter?_ Mia came in and grinned when she saw that Sai was awake. "Ohayo! Sage said you'd be coming around today."

"What happened? I remember fighting with that Kionden person, and then I wake up here."

"Kionden knocked you out. I took Byakuen to the animal hospital, and then I came back to the battle site and took you guys home."

"What happened to Hilaris and Halicyon?"

"Oh, they ran after Yuli, who had wandered off, and when they found him, they had gotten lost and couldn't find us again. When they realized that a storm was brewing, they took a bus back here. They came in a bit after us."

"And they weren't suspicious when they saw that we were all unconscious?"

"They assumed you were sleeping. I told them that you had all played a really rough game of soccer, and that you were sleepy. They seemed to accept that."

"How long have I been unconscious?"

"Let's see..." She counted on her fingers. "The fight was on Friday afternoon, and it's Sunday morning now."

"I was out for two days?"

"Yep. That sickness guy hit you pretty hard."

"No kidding. Anyway, nurse Mia, can I get out of bed yet?"

Mia laughed. "I guess you're well enough to walk around. The others are talking in the living room—why don't you join them?"

"Okay," said Sai as he walked towards the stairs.

------

Ryo and the others were talking about the fight when Sai came down. "Hey guys," He said.

"Sai! How are you feeling, man?" Asked Kento. "Sit down, we were just talking about the fight."

As Sai sat down next to Rowen, Sage, who had been talking before, continued. "Then me and Sai got thrown into a couple of trees. I heard Kionden say that he was going to take us to Lord Talpa, when these two new women showed up. They had armor too, just like ours, except that theirs were yellow and purple. They were really good fighters, better than we were. They managed to defeat Kionden and force him back to Talpa, but then they left..."

"Wait a minute." Interrupted Ryo. "You're saying that two women were able to defeat a guy that all five of us couldn't beat?"

"Uh huh."

"How do you know that they weren't figments of your imagination or something?" asked Rowen. "I mean, you were half-conscious."

"Well, we aren't in a cell in Talpa's castle right now, are we?"

"How do you know you didn't dream that up, too?"

"He didn't, because I saw those two women, too," said Mia, coming down the stairs.

"Well, then, who are they? And are they allies?" Wondered Ryo. He looked at Mia. "Can you check if your Grandfather had any information on those two new armors?"

"Sure!" Said Mia and headed back upstairs.

"They're allies," said Sage. "When I saw them, I just got this feeling that they were there to help us, and they we could rely on them."

"Sage, did your visions tell you anything about this?" Asked Sai.

"Yeah, I was going to mention that once you guys stopped asking me questions." Sage half-smiled. "I saw the colors of their armors in my dream, and their weapons, and a lot of other stuff about them..."

Kento opened his mouth to ask a question when Yuli came in, tailed closely by Halicyon. Kento quickly shut his mouth again.

Halicyon grinned at Sai. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah, I had a good nap."

"What were you guys talking about?" she asked, sitting next to Rowen. Yuli sat on the floor and started playing with Mia's keys.

"Oh, we were deciding whether to play soccer again today." Ryo said quickly.

Halicyon looked shocked. "Are you guys crazy? You guys nearly killed yourselves playing before, and you want to play it again?! And Sai just woke up!"

Sage held up his hands. "All right, calm down, we'll play tomorrow."

Halicyon looked like she was going to argue some more, but decided against it. "Oh, fine, get yourselves killed, as long as Hilaris and I can come."

The guys looked at each other, shocked. "All right," said Rowen quietly.

Halicyon grinned. "Great! I gotta go catch Yuli, if you'll excuse me..." Yuli looked up at the sound of his name and ran.

Halicyon ran after him, yelling, "Yuuuliiiiii! It's time for your bath, come on!"

"Uh-uh!" Yuli yelled back.

Sage looked at them all. "You do realize what she just did, right?"

Kento nodded. "Now we have to go to the park, or else she'll get suspicious. Why'd you have to tell her yes, Rowen?"

"What else could I say—could any of us say? No? No, you can't come, because we we're not going to the park tomorrow, that we weren't even talking about going to the park, but we were really talking about the Dynasty?" Rowen glared.

------

"You do know that they were lying to you, right Hali?" Hilaris asked Halicyon in that strange language of theirs.

"Of course! You could tell that it was a spur-of-the-moment thing—you should have seen Sage's face! I trapped them into it, though. That should teach them not to lie to us."

"So we're going to the park again tomorrow, when they go and 'play soccer'?" Hilaris asked.

"Uh huh." She grinned.

"Damn, and I wanted to study for my Zoology final too...oh well, I've already studied, and I can always study over there. Anyway, it's easier to protect Earth if we're outside."

Halicyon sat on the bed, thinking. "At least we found the Legendary Armors. Come to think of it, we found them pretty fast. You know, I never really believed that old tale until He came along, and even then I never really believed that there were any others."

Hilaris' eyes turned dreamy as she turned to the window, looking at the old cherry blossom tree that waved outside. "The Tale of the Legendary Armors...There were eleven armors made in Serusin of mythical Sunsteel, a metal so strong that no metal has been ever found to match its strength or beauty. The armors of Wildfire, Strata, Halo, Torrent, Hard Rock, Illusion, Darkness, Venom, and Cruelty were made to work together as a team. There were two others, the armors of Fauna and Flora, which were made as a backup—in case the bearers of the other Armors needed help, or were in peril, or joined the Dynasty. The armors were given to eleven trustworthy families, sworn to protect Good forever and protect any that were threatened by the Dynasty. I always half-believed it, but I never believed that tale either until He came along."

Suddenly Halicyon jumped up as if she'd been bitten. "GODS! Why didn't we see that before!?"

"What?" Said Hilaris excitedly, whipping around.

"Mia was at that fight—and Byakuen!"

Hilaris' eyes widened in shock. "Oh gods...They're the bearers of the Legendary Armors?! No way! They can't be! They're too...ordinary!"

"It's the only thing that explains it. Anyway, haven't you seen how they seem to work well as a group, and really trust each other? They're really good friends—"

"And that's part of the Legend too—that they can almost read each other's thoughts, that they can work together seamlessly as a team, because Worlds may rest on their shoulders." Hilaris finished. "Wow. I can't—" She was suddenly cut off by a fit of coughing.

Halicyon said worriedly, "You really should have that cough checked."

Hilaris snorted. "Stop worrying. It's nothing more than cold. Anyway, I'm stronger than him."

"Still..."

"Oh, stop! I'm fine! Anyways, I'm going to study, and you have to make sure that little terror washes behind his ears."

"I never could understand why you don't like Little Ones."

"Because they're little terrors, that's why." She shuddered. "They whine, and run circles around you until you're dizzy, and have temper tantrums..."

"I think they're cute."

"I think you're crazy."

Halicyon glared at Hilaris, who stared back at her. "You're right though, I better make sure Yuli hasn't drowned. See you later."

"Ja," Said Hilaris as she took out her books and began to study.

------

"Bet I can beat you to the car!" Kento grinned, running circles around Rowen.

"Bet you can't!"

"Can too!"

"Can not!"

"Can too!"

"Try me!"

As the two dashed off, Sai gave a sigh of exasperation. "Must they act like two year olds? What, did Ro-chan get into the sugar again?"

"Must be the spring air," Halicyon said with a smile.

Even with Kento's and Rowen's antics, they got to he park without any accidents—not any big ones, anyway. "Come on you guys, let's play!" Ryo called, grabbing the ball, before he was run over by Kento and Rowen. "GUYS, GROW UP!" Ryo yelled.

"Gomen nasai, Ryo-kun!" Kento yelled as the duo continued to dash towards the playing field.

Hilaris watched them, trying to hide her skepticism. _They're the bearers of the Legendary Armors, and they run over each other? Right now, I don't think that Earth's future is very bright._

Sai looked at Hilaris. "You guys want to play? It doesn't matter if you don't know how, we can teach you."

"Nah, I think we'll sit out this once. We'll learn by watching you guys." Hilaris smiled.

It was a very windy day, and the leaves on the trees rustled. Halicyon lifted her head, listening to the wind move through the trees. "Trouble," She said quietly.

Hilaris glanced at her before turning her attention to the game. "What are they telling you?"

"Something evil's coming."

"We'd better get ready, then," Hilaris said. She turned. "Hey, Mia! We're going to go for a walk, okay?"

"All right!"

The two quickly walked away.

------

The wind began to approach gale force, and storm clouds began to roll in. The boys stopped playing soccer and looked up. "Shoot," muttered Kento.

"He's back?! Dang it!" Ryo yelled. He looked around, but Hilaris and Halicyon had vanished...again. An alarm bell rang in the back of his mind, but he ignored it. "Let's armor up!" The group stood, armored, in a few seconds, and waited for their assailant to appear. Unbeknownst to them, the Storm Falcon and the Darkness Aster waited behind them, hiding in the shadows.

They did not have to wait long. Soon five strands of wind turned a forest green, and spiraled so they touched a single point. The point grew wider and a person jumped out of it, landing catlike on the grass.

It was a woman. Her waist-length hair flowed behind her, the color of the morning sky. Her violet eyes calmly surveyed the scene. She wore an armor that was the mirror image of Kionden's—her armor had a jet-black underlayment with charcoal grey plates on top. A long cape made out of forest green silk was buffeted about by the wind. She, too, held a stave, but it was made out of ebony and was crowned with a sinister-looking dragon that was coiled on top of a brass orb. "So you are the five that my brother told me of," she said, her bright, inquisitive, cold eyes flicking from one to the other. "But where are the two that defeated him?"

"Kionden is your brother?" Asked Kento.

"Hai." She held her hand to her cheek in mock dismay. "Oh, silly me! I haven't introduced myself yet! My name is Inokian, mistress of Calamity."

"What's calamity?" Asked Sai.

"Calamity means disaster," Rowen replied.

"Oh."

"Where are the two that defeated my brother?" Asked Inokian again.

"Right here." Replied a voice behind the Ronin Warriors. They all whipped around.

Ryo saw two armored women step out of the shadows, dressed in deep purple and a yellow so bright he was surprised she was able to hide in the shadows at all._Well, at least we know that Sage wasn't hallucinating,_ thought Ryo. "So you 're the new people Halo was telling us about."

The Yellow-armored woman nodded. "I am the Darkness Aster, the bearer of Flora."

"And I am Fauna, the Storm Falcon."

"Now that we all know each other, let's get down to business!" Inokian interrupted, and leaped at Fauna and Flora with a yell.

Flora leaped into the air and whacked Calamity hard with the Vine Staff, knocking her backwards towards the Ronin Warriors. "Hey you guys! WAKE UP!" She yelled at the shocked boys.

Rowen realized that Inokian was still off balance—a good time to attack. "Arrow Shock Wave!"

Sai was attacking her, too. "Super Wave Smasher!"

The two attacks could do what one could not. Inokian was caught between the two blasts and screamed in pain. She was thrown off her feet, stunned for a moment before getting up. She smiled shakily. "So, maybe not so weak after all."

The Mistress of Calamity leaped up and yelled her surekill. "Wind Tornado Destruction!"

The wind suddenly grew in power, nearly blowing the warriors off their feet, and Calamity's staff's crown began to glow. The wind turned dark forest green and was absorbed by her staff until her stave's dragon top was also forest green. Then she brought her staff in front of her like a gun, pointing at Fauna and Flora, and began to make rapid small circles in the air. The forest-green wind suddenly shot out of her stave, following the spiral that Inokian was making. The two brought their swords up to block, but the attack was so powerful, the wind was so strong, that that it threw their helmets off. They ran to retrieve their helmets, trying to cover their identities, but Kento had seen their faces.

"Halicyon? Hilaris? You're the bearers?" He asked incredulously.

"No time for that!" Hilaris yelled. "We're in the middle of a battle here!"

"No duh!"

"Shut it, both of you!" yelled Halicyon. "Hard Rock, look out! Inokian's behind you!"

Kento dodged out of the way just as Calamity's destruction stave came hurtling down. She hissed, and went after Kento again. This time, Kento didn't dodge, he just grabbed her stave and ripped it out of her hands.

"GIVE ME BACK MY STAVE!" she yelled, stamping her foot. She looked like she was about to have a temper tantrum. The wind grew in force, blowing Rowen off his feet and into Hilaris, bowling them both over. Kento, however, was heavy enough that he didn't budge.

"Only if you promise to leave us alone." Kento replied, as if he didn't notice his friends were flying all over the place.

"Never! What would Master Talpa say if I agreed to that?"

On cue, a booming voice came out of nowhere. **"Calamity, come back to our world. We'll have another chance to beat them later."**

"But Master Talpa—"

**"Obey me! Return, at once!"**

Inokian sighed. "Yes, Master."

She looked at the Ronin Warriors and sneered. "Don't get your hopes up. You may have won this battle, but we will win the war. Master Talpa will control this world, and he won't let a few children get in his way." She then turned to Kento and held out her hand. "My stave."

"No."

Calamity's eyes glittered. "Give my stave to me _now._"

"No."

Calamity looked like she was going to attack Kento when Halicyon sliced a bit of brass off of the staff's orb. "HOW DARE YOU?!" Yelled Inokian, about to leap at Flora's throat when Kento threw her stave into her chest, knocking her over.

"There' s your stave, now get out."

Inokian got up, shot a glare at Halicyon, bowed to them mockingly, and teleported away.

Hilaris took off her helmet and smiled at the guys weakly. "So, I guess we have a lot of explaining to do, huh?"

* * *

Well, that's chapter five! Wow, I wrote that in two hours! Is it rushed? -Skims over story, then shrugs- Oh well, it's three in the morning! I'm not going to revise it now! 

-Turns to Avirilli, smiling way too sweetly- Now, getting back to that comment you made earlier... -Avirilli gulps and runs-

Windsong - windsong 137 at gmail dot com


	7. Legends and Tales

Konnichiwa! I'm SO SORRY I haven't written in such a long time! Especially when I left it on such a cliffhanger like that... GOMEN NASAI, MINNA-SAN! It's just that with all the tests and presentations and projects and HOMEWORK that we've been getting, I hadn't been able to find enough time to write a draft of this chapter, let alone put it up. Add the fact that my comp has been acting screwy and it can't access and I have a very good excuse why I haven't been writing.

Well, here's chapter six, even though it is late. Avi finally found a chance (at 12:30 AM) to wake me up and prod me to start writing, so here it is!

Oh yeah...I have to put a disclaimer...I don't own RW, some very lucky people do. I DO however own all the new ideas! Hilaris and Halicyon are mine! The armors of Fauna and Flora are mine! Kionden and Inokian, and their respective armors, are mine! Serusin is mine! Acitis is mine! Basically, I own everything new, which in this chapter is quite a lot. Got it?

Enjoy!

Stuff in ( ) are Author's Notes.

* * *

Fur and Field  
_By Windsong_  
**Chapter Six: Legends and Tales  
**Written March 2000**  
**

The silence in the car pressed upon the group. They could practically hear what each one was thinking. Finally, the long, tense car ride ended, and they filed out of the car and into the living room. They sat/stood around the two women. Rowen looked at Halicyon. "Talk."

"Well, I may as well start from the beginning..." Halicyon sighed, and began.

"If nothing else, we didn't lie about our names. Our real names are Hilaris Monoceros and Halicyon Pericolas. However, we don't come from Rankalia, as I'm sure you figured out." She looked at Rowen.

He nodded. "I looked up Rankalia on the map. It doesn't exist. You made it up, right?"

"Bingo. We really come from a land called Serusin."

"Where's that?"

"It's not anywhere on your map. In fact, it's not anywhere in your universe. Serusin is another world."

Six- no, wait, that's seven, Byakuen counts- blank looks greeted this piece of information. "Nani?" Sai finally asked.

"We come from Serusin, it's another world that's sort of similar to yours but not really. You know how the Dynasty has another world? Well, it's the same thing for us. We're from another world... I guess you could call it another dimension, but that's not really right." Hilaris tried to explain.

"Oh, so that's what Grandfather meant! He kept hinting that there were other worlds!" Mia exclaimed.

"So what are you doing here? Why aren't you at your world?" Ryo asked.

"Because it was taken over by the Dynasty."

More stares greeted this news.

"Okay, Hilaris is better to tell this story—she's the one who's really into legends." Halicyon looked at Hilaris, giving her the stage.

Hilaris began speaking. "All right. Serusin was a prospering world, thriving mainly because from Serusin, there are links to every other world. Serusin also has a very strong warrior background, which means that we have some of the best artisans of all the worlds. In fact, The legendary armors were made in Serusin, out of a mythical metal called Sunsteel, a metal that is marvelously light, yet one of the strongest metals that ever existed. Sunsteel also has the ability to hold in elemental powers, which is why each armor was blessed with power over a different element.

"Now, the legends say that there were eleven armors made. The nine that you know of, Wildfire, Halo, Torrent, Strata, Hard Rock, Illusion, Cruelty, Darkness and Venom were made to work together. They are called the Base Armors. However, two other armors, the armors of Fauna and Flora, were made to assist the eleven originals lest anything go wrong. These two were made to work in a pair, and were named the Reserve Armors.

"Then the nine base armors were given to nine well respected mage families that had sworn to follow good. Each family was given an armor that matched their power, for example a family which could control the wind and clouds was given the armor of Strata to guard. Eventually, five of those families—your families—came to earth. However, the families chosen to keep the Reserved Armors were ordered to never use them except in times of extreme desperation, and to never leave Serusin.

"Now, getting back to the Dynasty. The Dynasty was created about 1,000 years ago on a world called Acitis by a group of five people. Those five eventually took over all of Acitis, and resolved to take over all the worlds. Did you know that Talpa isn't a name, but a rank? (I KNOW it isn't, but I already told you this story was A/U so now it is.) The first leader, a man named Gradinu, eventually died, and his second-in-command took over the title of Talpa. So the Dynasty has been ruled throughout the centuries.

"Eventually, however, the worlds were able to stop the Dynasty from taking over everything and confine it to Acitis, using elemental and psychic powers to hold it in. As a final precaution, the four families that remained on Serusin sent the bearers of the armors of Darkness, Cruelty, Venom and Illusion to guard Acitis.

"Naturally, the Dynasty broke free of the powers that held it. The four armor-bearers tried to fight them, but eventually they were overpowered and their minds were tainted so that they worked for the Dynasty. Free of all its restraints, the Dynasty tried to take over once more. Powered by the four Base armors, they took over hundreds of worlds quite easily. Eventually, the Dynasty turned its eyes towards Serusin.

"And so started what we call The Last War. The Dynasty was cunning in how it took over us, first finding people who would go willingly and inviting them to join their army, enticing them with promises of power and riches. Many fell to these temptations." Hilaris looked down for a moment before looking back up again, her eyes full of bitter, deep, sorrowful anger. "My father was one of them."

"Your Father joined the Dynasty?" Kento asked incredulously.

Hilaris nodded, and continued. "So, once they gathered all the willing people, they tried to take Serusin by force. We fought back of course, and gave them a run for their money..." Hilaris smiled, remembering. "But eventually, their sheer numbers wore us out. So, I was told that I and Halicyon were the armor bearers of the Reserved Armors, and that for the sake of all the worlds we had to don our armors and fight for Serusin." She looked over at Halicyon. "So that's what we did. Even with us fighting, however, our world was slowly but surely taken over. We suffered loss after loss." Her eyes filled with an aching sorrow that time had not healed. "My brother was killed, run through by an uncaring dynasty soldier. My own mother was murdered, right before my very eyes, and I could do nothing. Eventually, we were two out of a handful of people who were alive, and the rest of them didn't see the point of fighting anymore and surrendered to the Dynasty. What happened to them, I do not know.

"We, however, did not surrender to the Dynasty — we had heard of the four tainted Basics. After the last ones surrrendered, we knew that even we, with our armors, could not stand against them. So we left one final thing to slow down the dynasty, and we fled to Earth."

"What was the last thing you did to them?" Asked Sai.

Halicyon grinned mischeviously. "We called upon our mage-powers and destroyed as many of the World Gates as we could. Those we couldn't destroy, we blocked off."

"You guys are mages?" Asked Sage, amazed.

"You are too, you know," Hilaris cut in with some amusement, her smile widening as everyone turned to stare at her.

"Well, yes," Halicyon continued, glaring at Hilaris for interrupting, "but our Mage-powers tie into our armors. Yours too, since Hil brought that up at the worst possible time," she muttered under her breath, glaring again at her friend, who smiled without a shred of repentance. "Hilaris can talk to animals, and command them. However, since she can talk to animals, she can also speak any language—humans are animals as well, you know. I have power over plants. We basically had plants and animals tear down the portals. The only two we couldn't destroy were the ones that led to Acitis and Earth, so we asked our charges to protect them so that they couldn't go through. I suppose they were able to get through Earth's portal anyway..."

"So what happened after that?" asked Kento.

"Basically, we came here, became students at the college, and met Mia in one of our classes. Then we met you at that party, and the rest you know."

There was a small silence. "Well, what else about you guys? I mean, you told us a lot of background, and how you got here, but what about your childhoods?" Sai asked.

"Well," Halicyon began, "Hilaris and I are both from noble houses, but no one bothers with that anyway. And before you interrupt again," Halicyon raised a warning hand, and Hilaris shut her mouth and smiled at her, "Your families are too, back on Serusin. Anyway, Hilaris and I have known each other since we were babies, and we've grown up together. We both went to the same school, and we trained together. That's another thing. You know our weapons?" Nods all around. "My weapon, it's sort of a mixture of three weapons, so its name is a mixture of all those weapons. My weapon's called the Dagmitaff." Silence reigned for a second before people started nodding. Halicyon continued. "From the second we could pick up a miniature version of our weapons, we've been trained in them. Our school was made for mages, called the Pencanan school—Pencana in our language means "Magically gifted".

Halicyon stopped talking for a moment and looked around the group. there was silence and some thoughtful looks as people digested the information. "So, have all your questions been answered?"

Nods from everyone.

"Okay. Well, if you'll excuse me, I have to go study—there's a quiz in geography tomorrow." Halicyon headed upstairs.

Kento paled. "Hey, Hali! Wait up! I need to study with you!"

Hilaris got up and stretched. "Well, I'm dead tired so I'm going to take a shower, and them I'm going to sleep. G'night." She yawned and headed upstairs as well.

Silence reigned for a second before they all got up and went their seperate ways.

* * *

There! Chapter six is all done! -grins and dusts off hands- I REALLY needed to write that section, I really wanted people to know the whole background that I'd brewed up in my head for this story. Well, ja ne! I'll get back to the fighting and the plot twists next chapter! 

Windsong - windsong 137 at gmail dot com


	8. Entrapment

Well, I felt so guilty about leaving you guys up in the air for so long with that last chapter that I decided to start writing faster... but honestly, what's the point of writing if no one's going to read it? I've only gotten seven reviews, for goodness sakes! -sigh- Oh well... I'll keep writing anyway, even if it's only because Avirilli's constantly needling me to...

And yeah, I like opening chapters with school scenes. Sue me. -Sees readers call their lawyers- Ack! NO! I didn't really mean it!

Oh yeah, the disclaimer so that you guys _can't_ sue me -glares-... I don't own The original Ronin Warriors, but I own Hilaris and Halicyon and Kionden and Inokian and the whole AU background! It's mine! MINE! MIIIINE! (as you can see, I'm very very very VERY possesive...)

Stuff in ( ) are author's notes, as usual. You'll also notice that any unusual terms in this chapter have numbers after them. The numbers correspond to explanatory notes at the end of the chapter.

Well, enjoy!

* * *

Fur and Field  
_By Windsong_  
**Chapter Seven: Entrapment  
**Written March 2000 

Hilaris put down her pen, sighed, and stretched, relieved that she had finally finished her English final. _Thank the gods that it's the last test._ She quickly reviewed her answers before handing in her paper, giving the victory sign to her friend Rose, and walking out of the classroom. After grabbing her books, she walked outside to meet Rowen and wait for the others. "So, Ro, how did your test go?"

"Fine..." he said, his mind clearly elsewhere as he looked up at the sky.

"Yen for your thoughts."

"Nothing... just wondering why Mia never told us that whole story that you did last week."

"Probably because she didn't know. The History of the Legendary Armors is strictly an oral legend—it's never been written down. Her Grandfather probably didn't want to break the custom, so he never spoke of it, and he didn't want to freak out Mia with tales of other worlds."

Sai and Halicyon came up. "Hey guys!" Sai said, waving. "How did you guys do?"

"Just fine," Hilaris replied. "I didn't know some of the questions, so I just guessed... hope I'm right."

Sage, then Ryo, and finally Kento came rushing up. "Konnichiwa, minna!"

Kento groaned. "I know I got at least half the questions wrong, I just_know_ it..."

Ryo grinned at him. "Oh, stop griping, you always say that and then you get a good grade anyway."

"Yeah, but this time I'm sure..."

"Hey guys! We have to catch the bus!" Shouted Hilaris, getting up and running off. The others soon followed suit.

------

Rowen was outside, training his falcon when Hilaris came out. "Hey Ro! Oh, cool bird!" exclaimed Hilaris as she came over to him.

"Watch out, she's vic—" He stopped abruptly when he saw his golden eagle fly over to her, land on her outstretched arm, and start chirping. (Yes, I know—falcons don't chirp—but you know what I mean.) "Oh right, you talk to animals, don't you..." Rowen rubbed the back of his neck, not sure what to make of Hilaris for a moment. "Hey, isn't she hurting you? She's got awfully sharp claws."

Hilaris chirped back before handing the bird back to Rowen. "No, she doesn't hurt me because she knows how much pressure to put on my arm before she starts cutting my skin, plus the fact that I'm good with animals. She's beautiful, you know... mind if I help you train her?"

"No, of course not."

After about a half-hour of training, Rowen asked, "You're awfully good at falconry.(1) Had any past experience?"

Hilaris' face shadowed for a moment before she answered. "Yeah. My brother, Adari, was a falconer. He had all kinds of birds... I was his assistant, so I learned a lot about falcons. Eventually, Adari gave me my own falcon, A peregrine-gyr(2)..." She drifted off and her eyes turned dreamy, remembering. "Anyway, she said that she's getting bored with just using lures(3)—why don't you try some real game?"

"Well, I don't know where to get any."

"Well, there's always the game reserve..." (I don't know if there are game reserves in Japan, but there are now.)

------

Halicyon, Hilaris, Sai and Rowen eventually went to the game reserve on their own. Ryo was at soccer practice, Kento was sleeping, and they were going to ask Sage before they realized he was meditating... they all knew that it was not a good idea to interrupt Sage's meditation, from previous (painful) experience. Sai was driving, Hilaris was talking to Rowen about various lures and what prey different raptors hunted, Halicyon was listening to the radio, and Rowen's falcon was complaining about being in a cage _and_ jessied.(4) 

They finally got there, and all piled out. While they were training and/or watching, the clouds had gathered so gradually that they had not even noticed it until the wind suddenly picked up and lightning streaked across the sky. Rain came hurtling down, drenching everyone. The falcon was not pleased.

Soon, five strands of wind turned forest green and touched a single point, turning into a portal which both Inokian and Kionden fell out of. "Greetings, Ronins." said Inokian, grinning wickedly at them.

"Let's go!" Yelled Rowen. "Armor of Strata!" Dao Inochi!"  
"Armor of Torrent! Dao Shin!"  
"Armor of Fauna! Min Leri!(5/6)"  
"Armor of Flora! Min Shanae!(5/7)"

Suddenly, Inokian yelled, "go!" and both she and her brother leaped at Hilaris and Halicyon before they could finish their sentences. Halicyon was too concentrated on calling her armor to realize that Inokian was attacking her until it was too late, and she was quickly knocked out by Inokian's stave. Hilaris realized, and dodged Kionden's attack. She called out to the falcon before having to jump out of the way of the Devastation stave again. "Hil!" Rowen cried, about to come over to help.

"Don't worry about me!" Hilaris yelled back. "Call your armor and save your own skins!" Kionden yelped as the falcon attacked his face, trying to bat the screaming raptor away. Hilaris took the time to leap at Kionden and knock him on his back. Inokian, however, snuck up behind her. The falcon screamed a warning, and Hilaris whirled to face her— but too slow, and she was thwacked on her temple by the Destruction staff and dropped.

"Now that we've gotten them out of the way, let's see how the Basics do on their own!" said Inokian as she helped up her brother. The falcon tried to attack Inokian, but Kionden hit it as if it were a baseball and it crashed into the ground. "Aurata! NO!" Yelled Rowen. "SHINEEEE!(7)" Rowen leaped into the air and yelled his surekill. Sai, seeing Rowen attack, used his surekill as well. Unfortunately, the two dodged out of the way. Kionden jumped at Rowen. Rowen used his bow to block, but he wasn't that good at close hand-to-hand combat. Sai began to run over before he was stopped by Inokian. Rowen was quickly overpowered by Kionden and thrown into a tree.

Sai went into a fighting stance, eyes narrowed as he watched Inokian and Kionden circle around him. "Two against one? That doesn't seem very fair," Sai said scornfully.

Inokian smiled. "Oh, dear, we've broken the rules. What ever are we to do now? Poor little boy," Inokian continued softly and contemptuously. "All alone, and too weak to beat us—and this time, there's no one to save you once you're down."

That gave him an idea. "Ryo! Sage! Kento!" He cried out. "Help! Inokian and Kionden are back—I can't beat them alone—" He got as far as that before both Kionden and Inokian jumped him. He was able to beat them off and sock Kionden in the gut, but Inokian struck his skull and he was knocked unconcious.

"That was a good plan, Inokian," Kionden said, wiping his brow.

"Thank you, brother," Inokian said, bowing mockingly. "Now, let's get these four back to Talpa. I'm hungry."

The pair swung the unconcious Ronins onto their soldiers, opened a portal to Talpa's castle, and stepped in.

The first four were taken.

* * *

The plot thickens! -rubs hands together and grins mischeviously- Oh, but I've got another plot twist in store for you people...Anyways, I hope ya liked it! 

Here's the:

GLOSSARY

(1) Falconry: the art of training falcons. Falconry, however, is also used as an umbrella term for the art of training any type of raptor-hawks, eagles, etc.

(2) Peregrine-gyr: A Peregrine-gyr is the offspring of a Peregrine Falcon and a Gyrfalcon.

(3) Lure: A lure is a device used for falcons, either to train them or to keep their skills sharp. It's basically a stuffed leather bag shaped to look like a pigeon or duck, with meat and feathers attached to trick the birds into thinking it's a real bird. It is then attached to a long string and swung in circles through the air. The falcon then attacks the lure mid swing.

(4) Jessies: Thin strips made of tanned animal hide (usually leather) that are tied around the falcon's legs. A falconer would then hold onto the jessies to stop the falcon from flying off. Jessies can also be attached to a creance, which is basically a leash.

(5) Min: No, this isn't Japanese- Since Daoism is a religion here on earth, Minqui is a corresponding religion on Serusin.

(6) Leri: Same thing here...the Serusinian word for "Determination." (I couldn't find the Japanese word for Determination. sigh)

(7) Shanae: Serusinian for "Energy" or "Vitality."

(8) Shine: Japanese word for "Die!" Pronounced "SHEEN-ey."

That was fun. Well, ja mata ne!

Windsong - windsong 137 at gmail dot com

"Oh Jesus I'm a fangirl dinosaur!" -Mari


	9. A Few Surprises

Konnichiwa, minna-san! Gomen for making you all wait so long! I was really bogged down with homework and stuff...but I already have all the chapters written out, so never fear! grin

Firestorm: -takes Windsong by the throat- WILL YOU JUST TYPE ALREADY!?  
Windsong: -choking- You know...Firestorm...you could really get off me...I can't reach the keys... begins turning blue  
Firestorm: -lets go and grins innocently- Gomen, but I really want you to type this up!  
Windsong: -gasps, breathes- Oh...that's all right. Where's Avirilli, anyway? She should be here bopping me over the head with that infernal wand of hers—  
Avirilli: -Appears out of nowhere and looms behind Windsong- WHAT did you say?!  
Windsong: -eyes glint- WHERE WERE YOU?! -pulls out ninja-to and waves them menacingly-  
Avirilli: -backs away- Just type...please...  
Windsong: -sigh-

Anyways, as much as I hate it, I do not own the Ronin Warriors. However, I do own Hilaris and Halicyon and Kionden and Inokian and Serusin and everything else that my strange mind has thought up. -Grin- They're mine! MINE! MIIIIIIIIINE!

Avirilli: -bops Windsong over the head- GET ON WITH IT!  
Windsong: -rubs head- ow... Well, enjoy!

Stuff in ( ) are Author's Notes.

* * *

Fur and Field  
_By Windsong_  
**Chapter Eight: A Few Surprises  
**Written March 2000 

Sage looked out the window worriedly, searching for the headlights of Sai's car. "Wonder where Ro and the others are," he thought aloud. "Ro's never been this late, not even to school, and you know how late he sleeps."

"Maybe traffic?" Ryo suggested.

"No, Sai has a cell phone—he would call to tell us that he would be late." Kento said.

Ryo stopped fiddling with his soccer ball and joined Sage at the window. "Look," Sage said as he pointed at the sky. "You can't see the stars."

"No, there are too many storm clouds in the—" Ryo's eyes widened. "You don't think...?"

"Of course not!" Kento said anxiously.

"But what if Kionden and Inokian really did attack them?" Pressed Ryo.

"Then Hilaris and Halicyon would help Ro and Sai to beat them," Sage responded camly.

"Still..." said Ryo, doubtful.

"Look, let's give them ten more minutes," Suggested Sage. "If they don't come, then we'll assume the worst has happened and we'll go check it out. Okay?"

"All right," Ryo said as Kento nodded, and the three waited anxiously.

------

Halicyon woke up on her back in full armor, on the floor of a dimly-lit, damp prison cell. Sai walked over to her, seeing that she was awake, and kneeled at her side. "Hey, bright eyes. How do you feel?"

"A little sore, but pretty much okay." She struggled to sit up and winced. Sai propped her up on the wall in a sitting position. "Arigato."

"No problem."

Halicyon scanned the small prison cell they were being held in, and caught sight of Hilaris, leaning on Rowen's shoulder, eyes closed. "Ooh, getting cozy there, Hil?" she teased, eyes dancing.

Hil opened her eyes and glared at her friend, who was grinning fiendishly. "Drop it, Sai's been harping at me for the past fifteen minutes, and I don't need you starting with me as well. It just so happens that Ro-chan's shoulder is more comfortable than the wall. And you shouldn't be talking, Hali," she added, her eyes twinkling impishly, "if those looks you were giving Sai at the game reserve mean anything."

"Shut up," Halicyon laughed, grabbing a pebble and tossing it a few inches away from Hilaris' head. Both Sai and Rowen were blushing by now.

"So...where do you think we are?" Asked Sai, trying to change the subject.

"Judging from the dead feeling of the place, my guess is that we're on Acitis," Hilaris replied. "I really hope they're not planning to keep us in here until we rot, for _their_ sake, because Shadirya knows I'm not that patient. In fact, Halicyon, we were just waiting for you to wake up, and then we were going to decide the best way to get out of here."

"Shadirya?" Rowen inquired.

"Shadirya, Serusinian god of Animals and Forests." she explained. "He's my patron god."

"Oh."

The four's heads whipped around as the ancient door to their cell opened with screech that made them all wince. Standing outside their smallish cell stood a troop of twenty Dynasty soldiers. _That's five for each of us,_ Sai calculated quickly. _Too many for us to take on quietly; they'll sound the alarm before we can get rid of them._ They all took fighting stances.

The foremost Dynasty soldier held up his hands. "We have not come to battle you," he said in a rough voice. "We have only come to bring you to the throne room."

"Oh, goody," Sai muttered under his breath.

"Now, will you come peacefully, or will we have to restrain you?"

The group conversed quickly before Halicyon replied, "We will not fight. However, move to harm us and you shall not survive long enough to regret it."

Silently, with Hilaris mentally mumbling that they should have trashed at least _one_ of them, they walked through the castle's twisted passageways and winding stairs to the throne room. Once there, the leader of the Dynasty soldiers knocked on the door. Inokian opened it, saw the four captives, and smiled sweetly. "Greetings, Ronins. Woud you like something to eat? Something to drink? Or maybe a nice bout of torture?" She giggled. Hilaris' eyes flashed and she was about to start forward when Halicyon put a hand on her arm and shook her head. Hilaris relaxed slightly, still glowering.

Meanwhile, Calamity looked over to the Dynasty Soldiers, her expression turning scornfully aloof in a moment. "You are dismissed," she snapped. Ushering the Ronins in, she slammed the door in the soldier's faces.

When she turned around, she was all jeering sweetness again. She bowed mockingly to the Ronins, and then skipped—yes, skipped—to Talpa's side, where her brother awaited.

Halicyon, looking around, was astounded by the immense size of the room. It was built out of dark grey stone, with bronze torch- and candle- holders spaced evenly around the room, all of which were lit—however the flame that rose from them was mint green, and gave no heat, only light. The eerieness of the candles, and the depressed atmosphere of the room, made her shiver. Talpa, of course, dominated the room, with Inokian and Kionden standing on his right.

Then her attention was caught by Lady Calamity, who was speaking again. "Will you not bow to Master Talpa?" Inokian asked them in a tauntingly sweet voice. "Surely your training masters taught you that it is proper to bow to your host."

"Why would be bow to a floating head?" Demanded Hilaris pointedly.

Inokian's eyes turned cold, and they could see her body freeze in anger. "Because if you do not bow, I will make you bow." She snarled.

"That is e_nough_, my pet. You have had quite enough fun for one day," said Talpa, speaking for the first time in a voice that would have shaken the floor—if the floor was the kind of floor that shook. Inokian instantly quieted, the coldness vanishing from her manner and leaving only humility behind. Hilaris muttered some—ahem—choice words in Serusinian.

If Talpa understood or heard Hilaris, he chose to ignore her, but turned his attention to the Sai and Rowen. "So, I meet you again, Torrent, Strata." His attention turned to Hilaris and Halicyon. "And you two are the Reserved Armors." It was not a question. "I finally get to meet the ones who caused so much trouble for me on Serusin."

Sai's eyes narrowed. "We'll never give in to you, you Dynasty filth!"

Talpa laughed, a laugh that filled the room so completely that it drowned out all thought. "Who ever said that I would ask you to give in to me? I could just kill you and take your armors."

The Storm Falcon stepped forward tauntingly. "But you won't, will you? We're too valuable. You'd rather try to make us allies. Plus the fact that if you were going to kill us, you would have done it already, before you even threw us in that prison cell."

Talpa looked at Hilaris, and Rowen could sense amusement and—affection?—emanating from him. _Does Talpa know Hilaris?_ Rowen wondered.

"Really, Fauna? Tell me the reason why I will not kill you."

Hilaris sighed heavily, and when she spoke it was as if she were explaining something to a five-year old. "Well, first of all you wouldn't have wasted your time holding us in a cell, you would have killed us when we were still unconcious, because you _know_ from past experience that we go down fighting. And second of all, my father has a very high position in the Dynasty, and he would take special pains not to kill me or my allies." She glared at Talpa.

"Very well met, my daughter," Talpa replied. "I have taught you well."

"No, the Pencanan school taught me well, not you, Sire," She sneered, "and my knowledge will be your undoing."

Talpa laughed again.

Rowen's jaw dropped. He turned to Hilaris startled. "_Talpa's your father?!_" he yelled.

The Storm Falcon faced him, face calm. "He is my Sire," she corrected him, icy anger and disgust clear in her voice.

"Oh, did Master Talpa's little girl forget to tell you?" Inokian said in a taunting voice. "Hilaris Monoceros, the Storm Falcon, Bearer of the Fauna Armor and the Beast Swords, is the heir to the dynasty."

* * *

Nice little twist, ne? -Evil grin- Oh, how I love writing this... 

Ja ne!

Windsong/Windy-chan - windsong 137 at gmail dot com

"I had a friend once. But then the rope broke and he ran away." -Danica


	10. A Family Feud

Konnichiwa Minna-san! -smiles and waves- Here's the next chapter! We're getting really close to the end now, I'm almost done. Will I write a sequel? I'm going to leave the door open for that, but I can't write one if I don't have any ideas...-glares at Avirilli, who looks away and whistles innocently- 

Anyways, so that Avirilli doesn't have to needle me -glares at her once again- I don't own The Ronin Warriors, some wonderful imaginative rich people do. So please don't sue me, because if you do Avirilli might attack you, and I don't want my readers hurt. -Avirilli looks as if she's going to attack Windsong, not the readers...- However, I DO own Hilaris and Halicyon and Kionden and Inokian and Serusin and Acitis and everything that clearly was not in the original RW storyline. -beams-

And by the way, in this, the Ancient never died. Sorry for not mentioning that earlier. And if he's a bit OOC, please don't flame me— there wasn't enough of him in the series for me to properly examine his character.

Enjoy!

* * *

Fur and Field  
_By Windsong_  
**Chapter Nine: A Family Feud  
**Written April 2000

"So, my daughter," continued Talpa after a few moments, "I could just kill off the other Ronins, even if they did put up a fight—I have enough numbers to overwhelm them, plus Lady Calamity and Lord Pestilence." Hilaris saw Halicyon's face assume a look of simmering anger. "But I will offer you a proposal. Will you not join me?"

"No." Hilaris replied flatly.

"Perhaps you do not understand." said her father, unruffled by her answer. "If you join the Dynasty, I would give you an honored, powerful position. You would have wealth and power beyond the reaches of your imagination. You would be my second-in-command, my advisor, who would lead our armies in battle, and have authority even over Calamity and Pestilence." At this, Inokian and Kionden bristled. "All this and more I would give to you, if you joined me. Surely you would not refuse such an offer?" Talpa inquired.

Fauna snorted rudely, crossing her arms. "What does any of that matter to me?" she asked scornfully. "I need none of that. And you of all people should know how mulish I can be. My answer is no, and it's staying no."

Talpa's voice took on an imperious, commanding tone. "Hilaris Monoceros, by the power bestowed in me by Serusinian custom, I order you as your father to join the Dynasty and take your rightful place by my side."

Halicyon gasped. Sai turned to her. "What, Hali?"

"Serusinian Customs go back to our world's creation," Halicyon said anxiously. "They are revered, and serve as our laws. They are so sacred that even the Serusinian Gods follow them. If you break a custom, the punishment is death, and not just any death—your death will be cursed by the Gods, so that you never gain rest, and are doomed to wander the halls of the Kingdom of Death forever. Because he called upon the power of Serusinian Custom, she has to obey him."

"Oh, no," moaned Rowen softly.

Hilaris seemed to consider this for a moment before she laughed, scornfully and bitterly. "I said no, _Sire_. And," her voice rose, "what power do you have over me?! What right have you to employ the power of Serusinian Custom? YOU DESTROYED OUR WORLD!"

The purple armored young woman pulled one of her ninja-to out of its sheath and pointed it at his face. "You killed your wife, my mother," she said in a dangerously soft voice that carried throughout the room. "I saw you, saw you choke her until she hung limp in your grasp. Then you threw her into the air and used her for target practice." She trembled with grief and fury. "You dishonored her spirit and her memory by scarring her body past recognition. And then you went on to send out the order to hunt down and kill my brother, and murder every Serusinian that was on our world. You did not follow the Customs. You destroyed them. So who are you, to invoke custom?!" She yelled. "After breaking every Custom, you think you have the right?!?!"

She took a deep breath, sheathed her sword, and seemed to draw her emotions in so that they boiled within her spirit and not across her face. "Talpa Gazun, I will not join you."

Talpa would not take no for an answer. He tried another track. "I remember when you were just a little one," he said softly, affectionately, "and you tried to say my full name, Gazun Monoceros. But you were so young, you could only come up with Gazeros."

"Those memories are dead," she said harshly. "They died when you killed my family. And _never_ say my family name."

"It's my family name, too," Gazun reminded his daughter gently.

"Under _Serusinian Custom_, that is no longer your family name. You have no family name, so that the curse set upon you by the Gods will not effect or shame your family. You are one of the Pohali, the cursed nameless ones, doomed to never have rest again and wander for eternity."

"Why you little wench!" the ruler of the Dynasty yelled. "How dare you speak to your father in such a way?!"

"YOU'RE NOT MY FATHER!" She roared back. "You_stopped_ being my father and became Pohali the _second_ you ran away like a _coward_ and joined the Dynasty!"

The words of this last statement hung in the air, and Talpa made no reply for a long time. "All right, Hilaris Monoceros," he said after a while, his voice imperious once more. "I am not going to go into that. But you WILL join me."

Rowen gasped to Hilaris' side. She whirled to see Strata rise into the air, fighting with an invisible force that was locked around his throat. "Rowen!" she screamed, as she, Kento and Halicyon tried to grab Rowen's legs and drag him back to the ground.

"No—don't—" he tried to yell at them, but it came out as a harsh whisper that was magnified through the room's acoustics. He began to cough as the invisible grip tightened slowly.

Rowen's friends stopped, and Hilaris jerked around to face her father's eyes, eyes full of hate and challenge. Inokian and Kionden started forward at the raw emotions which spilled from her eyes, but a quick order from Gazun in a growling, guttural language made them halt. However, they kept their staves at the ready.

Gazun looked back triumphantly into Hilaris' eyes. "Join me, or Strata dies."

Furious at such blackmailing, The Storm Falcon opened her mouth to scream insults at her father—and then heard Rowen cough harshly and gasp for air as the choking hold on his trachea grew slightly tighter. She grew uncertain, and hesitated.

------

"It's been fifteen minutes, and still no word," Ryo said worriedly, pacing back and forth across the living room rug. "I think Calamity and Pestilence really did attack them."

Suddenly, they all stiffened as they heard Sai scream, as if from a great distance. ""Ryo! Sage! Kento!" He cried out. "Help! Inokian and Kionden are back—I can't beat them alone—" then a final yell, and ringing silence fell across the room.

"Well, I guess that answers our question," Kento said weakly, standing up. "So let's go, then?"

"Yeah, but where? We don't know if they're still on earth, in Serusin, on Acitis or somewhere else." Sage said sensibly. "I don't think we can do too much to help right now, because we know too little."

"You can do much to help," a new voice said. The Ancient's staff glowed, and the ageless monk stepped forward.

"Ancient!" Ryo said, surprised. "Can you tell us where the others are?"

"They were taken by the Master of Pestilence and the Mistress of Calamity to Master Talpa."

"And where is Talpa?" Kento pressed.

"On Acitis, with his minions, your friends, and his daughter."

"He has a daughter? What's her name?" Sage asked.

"She has many names, but the one most widely used for her is The Storm Falcon."

"_Hilaris is Talpa's daughter?!_" all three yelled.

"Yes, yes," the Ancient said in an exasperated tone, waving the words aside. "Now do you want to save them or not? You're running out of time."

"Of course we do. They're our friends." Ryo said, eyes determined.

"Then here." The Ancient offered his staff to Ryo. Wildfire took it, puzzled.

"What can Ryo do with your staff?" inquired Kento.

"Go to the top of the highest building in Tokyo. From there, point towards the North Star, and yell out the names of your friend's armors. My staff will then transport you as close as possible to your friends. Oh, and one more thing," he said, turning to Mia and Yuli, "You two cannot go with them."

"What!? But—" Yuli started to whine.

"No. You two are not going. I will put a spell around this house to protect you, but you cannot follow them. You would distract them, and on Acitis a distraction can lead to death. And Acitis is no place for someone with no fighting training."

"All right, we won't go with them," Mia said, sounding a bit annoyed as she clamped her hand over Yuli's mouth to stop him from whining and dragged him off.

"Thank you for helping us, Ancient," Sage said, bowing. Is there anything else we might need to know?"

"Only this—remember, Acitis is black world that will slowly poison your soul if you do not have magical protection. That's another reason I did not want Mia and Yuli tagging along. That means, before you teleport there—before you even leave this house—put on your sub-armors. Do not take them off for anything. If you feel your soul giving in to the poison—it will feel like a blackness is enveloping your soul—do not hesitate to call your full armor. That will keep the poison at bay. Understand?"

"Yes, Ancient. Thank you." Ryo said.

The monk then pulled his right hand into a fist, and then opened it to reveal five little balls of light, each colored red, orange, green, dark blue, or light blue. The little balls spun in a circle as the moved upwards, vanishing into the ceiling. A few seconds later, a brilliant flash of white light streamed through the windows for a second before vanishing.

"Now this house is protected," the Ancient said, turning to go. "Good Luck."

"One more question before you go, please!" Kento called after the monk.

The Ancient turned again to face them, eyes overly patient. "What is it?"

"Do you know who made our armors?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact I do." The monk settled back on his heels, his mouth turned up ever so slightly at the corners. "I made them."

"You did?"

"Yes. I was but a young monk-mage then, and I wanted to do something that would affect the worlds for eternity."

"So you're from Serusin, too." Sage noted.

"All of you have some Serusinian blood in you, because your families are originally from Serusin. And I, too, am from one of the oldest families in Serusin. In fact, The Darkness Aster is one of my kin."

"Jeez, new surprises at every turn," muttered Kento. "I wonder what else they've been hiding from us?"

"Now, I must go," The Ancient said, bowing. "Once again, may Jerinna, goddess of luck and endings, smile upon your endeavours." And he was gone.

* * *

-Devilish grin- The next chapter is the last chapter, followed by an epilogue. The ending takes heavily from some literature I've just read, I don't know if anyone will spot it.

Well, ja ne!

Windsong/Windy-chan - windsong 137 at gmail dot com

"Even joy can become pain / Even stone can love again" -Featherdust


	11. The Final Battle

Konnichiwa, minna! I decided to give up on that three-review thing, it was really stupid anyways.

Sorry this took so long, but this is by far the longest chapter, and also the concluding one! DUN DUN DUN!

Avirilli: Um, Windy? You have an epilogue.  
Windsong: -scratches head sheepishly- Oh, yeah...that...well, still, this is the climax of the story, then. DUN DUN DUN!  
Avirilli: Stop with the "dun" stuff, it's annoying.  
Windsong: -To Avi- Oh, shut up. -To readers- Anyways, here it is, so I won't bother you with senseless chatter—I talk too much anyway.  
Avirilli: You certainly do!  
Windsong: SHUT UP! For goodness sakes!  
Avirilli: NO!  
Windsong: JUST GO AWAY AND HELP SOMEONE ELSE!  
Avirilli: THE DISCLAIMERS!!!  
Windsong: OKAY! FINE! NOW SHOO! -blasts Avirilli away with a tremendous gust of wind- Jeez, someone didn't have enough coffee this morning...Anyway! I don't own Ronin Warriors. I DO own Hilaris, Halicyon, Inokian, Kionden, Serusin, Acitis, and anything else that I throw in that isn't in the original storyline. Okay?  
Avirilli: -from a far distance away- OKAY!  
Windsong: I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP AND GO AWAY!  
Avirilli: NO, YOU TOLD ME TO GO AWAY AND HELP SOMEONE ELSE!  
Windsong: THAT TOO! SHOO! NOW! BEFORE I LOCK YOU IN MY CLOSET AGAIN! Jeez, she's even worse than Firestorm sometimes...  
Firestorm: WHAT WAS THAT?!  
Windsong: -gulp- nothing, nothing...on with the story! -rushes to type before Firestorm or Avirilli can interrupt again-

* * *

Fur and Field  
_By Windsong_  
**Chapter 10: The Final Battle  
**Written April 2000

Ryo, Sage, Kento and Byakuen stood at the top of the highest building in Tokyo. The storm clouds hovered ominously overhead as the wind blew fiercely around them, cutting through their sub-armors and chilling them, and forcing them to yell to be heard over the wind's screech.

"Let's go!" Kento yelled. "If we wait out here much longer, I'm going to turn into an icicle!"

"Yeah, I know what you mean!" Sage shouted back, fighting to stay standing. "Let's call our full armors, maybe we'll be a bit warmer." They called their armors, and were pleased to see that they didn't have to fight the wind as hard, and they were a tad bit warmer.

"Um, we have a problem," Ryo informed the others. "If I can't see the North Star, how'm I supposed to point to it?"

On cue, the ancient's staff glowed slightly. The wind blew harder, nearly sweeping the ronins off their feet and clearing away the clouds that obscured the stars. Then the wind quieted slightly, just enough so they could stand easily and use their normal voice levels.

"This isn't going to last," Sage noted. "Come on, Ryo!"

The three touched the staff, and Ryo aimed the staff towards Polaris, the North Star. "Armor of Strata! Armor of Fauna! Armor of Torrent! Armor of Flora!" Wildfire yelled. The staff began to glow and the rings began to jangle, and a stream of light connected the staff to the star. The wind picked up again, but made a hurricane around them, cutting them off from the outside world. They felt themselves lifted off the ground as they whirled though a roaring tunnel of wind and bluish-white light.

------

They landed with a startling jar in front of two huge wooden doors. Getting into fighting stances, the trio looked around. They saw that they were already indoors, and in the crossroads of three large passageways. Suddenly a scream tore through the blanket of dreadful silence that hung through the building. "ROWEN!" They heard Hilaris scream, and the worried cries of Halicyon and Sai. They whirled, and realized that the sound was coming through a set of doors. That decided them, and they burst inside.

They saw Rowen about ten feet off the ground, fighting with some invisible force that seemed to be locked around his neck. Hilaris, Sai, and Halicyon were jumping up and down, trying to grab Rowen and wrench him back down. Ryo, Sage and Kento heard Rowen hiss, "No—don't—" before he started coughing. The three stopped trying to drag him back down abruptly.

Then the trio saw Talpa look directly at Hilaris. "Join me, or Strata dies," he informed her.

She opened her mouth in outrage, but hesitated when she saw Rowen gasping for air. She hesitated.

"I think we missed something..." Sage began worriedly. Halicyon heard him and whirled around to look at the three newcomers. Through the bond that she shared with them through their armors, she sent them a quick flurry of sights/visions and sounds to tell them what they had missed. The three were left reeling for a moment, unused to such a quick flood of information. "Woah." Sage whispered, massaging his temples.

As Byakuen, Wildfire, Hard Rock, and Halo walked forward to meet their friends, Hilaris was weighing her options. "Come on dearest, it shouldn't take this long to decide," Inokian mocked. Hilaris glared at Calamity before continuing to think.

Then her face grew resolute, and slowly, hesitantly, reluctantly, she stepped forward. "Fauna, what the hell are you doing?!" Kento yelled.

"Shut up, Hard Rock!" Hilaris snapped.

"You can't—"

"I said SHUT UP!" Her words hung in the air, ringing for a moment. Then she continued in her normal volume, though her voice showed that she was strained to nearly her limit, and it wouldn't take much for her to snap again—and maybe follow that up with a physical blow. "When we took on the Reserved Armors, we were told that we had two things, which we were to do above all costs—one, guard Serusin and if need be Earth; and two, _keep the Basic Armors, and the Bearers of the Basic Holders, safe._ We were told to do this at all costs. I already failed to complete one of those things; now, I will do this to fulfill the second." She made another step forward. "Talpa Gazun, I have changed my mind. I will join you if you let the Bearer of the Armor Strata go."

None but Halicyon, who was there when the two had accepted the Reserved Armors, knew that Hilaris was lying through her teeth...but couldn't tell what Hilaris was planning.

"So, the master still has a few tricks up his sleeve." Talpa was taunting her. "How I warned you against falling in love, because that could be used against you! And you disobeyed me. How sad. As agreed, Strata will be freed—if you repeat after me." Hilaris nodded, her face white. "I, Hilaris Monoceros, will join the Dynasty and take my place at my father's side," Talpa said slowly. "Now repeat."

"Free Strata first."

"All right." Strata dropped to the ground with a crash. Sage, Ryo, and Kento all ran towards him, checking to see how much damage was done to him. Luckily, it wasn't much, and coupled with the healing powers of the Halo Armor, Rowen was "all better" in a few moments. As Rowen got to his feet, Sai was about to move forward and try to stop Hilaris when Halicyon kicked him hard and shook her head. Confused, Sai moved past her anyway, but Halicyon grabbed his arm and yanked him back, shaking her head more firmly. "I hope you know what you're doing," Sai muttered, but only looked at Hilaris, not moving any closer.

"I, Hilaris Monoceros," she said in a slightly trembling voice, "will join the Dynasty..." her voice drifted off. She gave Sai and the others barely a moment of warning before a wild, savage, elated smile spread over her face. "I will join the Dynasty," she said in a ringing voice, "When the North Star dies!" Then, before her father could fully register the trick, she pulled out both her Ninja-to and yelled out her attack. "Armor of Fauna! BEAST RAGE SCREAM!" A bolt of silver-purple light errupted from her swords and—_what?_ Ryo thought confusedly._Was her aim off or something?_ For instead of aiming the blast at Talpa, she has aimed it a little below him, towards the wall.

Evidently, it was not an accident, because Flora had unfastened her staff and leaped to stand next to her best friend, yelling out her surekill. "Armor of Flora! VINE," she held her staff pointed towards the ceiling, scimitar side up, "TRIUMPH," she held the staff across with both hands horizontally across her body at arm's length, scimitar pointing to the right, "SONG!" She did a twirl and pointed towards the door, scimitar side pointing forward. Out of her staff, hundreds of golden vines made of light shot out, solidifying into a blast of pure golden energy that also blasted into the wall. From where they stood, the Ronins could suddenly see a small door, now slightly bent with the force of the blasts. Talpa seemed to shimmer.

"What on earth are you doing?" Ryo yelled.

"Ever seen The Wizard of Oz?" Hilaris shouted back. "You know, how the wizard was really this little person who manipulated a big illusion so that people would think that he was all-mighty and follow him? That's what's happening here!"

"You mean that the big floating head is just an illusion?!" Kento gasped.

"You got it. Armor of Fauna! BEAST RAGE SCREAM!" She threw her surekill at the door again, trying to destroy it.

"Armor of Flora! VINE TRIUMPH SONG!" Flora followed up her attack quickly. The door disintegrated, and the floating head disappeared. Out of the door stepped a man.

He wore brown sub-armor, with amber underlay, and held a chain sickle in his hand. His eyes were silver, like Hilaris', but they were charcoal grey, instead of the light, silvery grey that Hilaris' eyes were. His hair was black and fell to just below his shoulders. As Kionden and Inokian moved to stand behind him, he glared at Hilaris. "So, you figured it out, you little wench. Took you long enough." He sneered. Then he, Kionden, and Inokian flew at the Ronins. The three knew enough to leave the Reserved Armors alone, and instead Kionden attacked Sage and Rowen, Inokian jumped at Sai and Kento, and Ryo and Byakuen were left facing Talpa Gazun himself. "Leader against leader," Talpa smiled, as the three groups circled each other. Then he whirled the chain sickle over his head. "Armor of the Dynasty! Ultimate Planet Submission!" He yelled. The sickle was suddenly outlined with an eerie amber glow, and from it hundreds of little beams shot out, trying to entangle him. He dodged, too slowly—but Byakuen leaped across, grabbed the chain sickle in his teeth, and tossed it aside, canceling the attack. "Smart kitty." He growled.

All of a sudden, the Ronin Warriors were surrounded by a white glow which glowed brilliantly around them. They could feel power, raw, vibrant, tingling, rushing through their veins. As the looked around for the source, it was Sai who found it—Hilaris and Halicyon sitting on the floor, back-to-back, eyes closed, with six (Byakuen counts) streams of power flowing from them. "What are you doing?" Rowen asked.

"That's another power of the Reserved Armors—the Basic Armors can draw upon the power of our armors," Halicyon informed the surprised Ronins. "Now get 'em!"

Fired with this new energy, Sai, Kento, Sage, and Rowen quickly overpowered Kionden and Inokian, knocking them out. Kento slammed his bo into Inokian's stomach. "_That's_ for being an all-around pain in the butt," he informed her. As Hilaris and Halicyon felt the Ronins defeat their adversaries, they drew the streams of power that connected them to the Ronins back into themselves, saving their power. However, even while boosted with Hilaris' and Halicyon's power, Ryo and Byakuen could not defeat Talpa—he was too powerful—and the other Ronins were too exhausted from all the extra energy that had been running through their veins to help their leader. Hilaris and Halicyon then took matters into their own hands. Getting up, Halicyon still lending power to Ryo and Hilaris feeding Byakuen strength, they joined Ryo and Byakuen's battle as the other Ronins watched wearily.

Ryo just barely dodged being wrapped by the chain as Byakuen jumped on Gazun's back. The chain kept going, heading towards Hilaris. She calmly grabbed it and a tug-of-war ensued. Halicyon meanwhile tried to cut off his legs with her scimitar. Talpa jumped over Flora's weapon—but while he was concentrating on jumping, Hilaris gave a mighty tug and wrenched the chain sickle out of his hand. Talpa hissed and, harnessing his armor's power directly, threw Byakuen off his back. The tiger smashed into the wall with a sickening crack, and dropped to the floor unconscious. As Sage made his way towards the tiger, Halicyon tackled Sage and pinned him down, shielding Sage from a blast of crackling brown energy that zapped the place where Sage's head would have been. Hilaris held her father in place with her Ninja-to. Halicyon quickly got up and also held him in place with her Dagmitaff. "Ryo, GO! Use your surekill!" Both Hilaris and Halicyon ordered him.

Ryo linked his katana together and leapt into the air, calling his surekill. "Armor of Wildfire! FLARE UP NOW!" a huge blast of energy shot out off his katana to collide with Talpa's body.

"Armor of Fauna! BEAST RAGE SCREAM!"

"Armor of Flora! VINE TRIUMPH SONG!"

Together, the three attacks were enough to kill Talpa.

In his last dying moments, Hilaris' silver eyes met her father's charcoal grey ones, and The Storm Falcon saw rage and hate in them. "If you would join me in life," her one-time father snarled, reaching out to grab her arm, "Then you will join me in death!" And from his armor a million brown ropes of crackling energy lashed out of his hand to wrap around her arms and advance over her body until she was covered with the brown strands. Hilaris felt her life being drained away by her father, following his life-force into the dark abyss of death. She screamed in horror and fear, stronger then she had ever known, before she collapsed.

------

Rowen had just finished helping Sage revive Byakuen when he heard a terrified shriek—_Hilaris!_ he realized—and heard Halicyon scream. The five guys whirled to see a million thin brown-but-quickly-turning-purple strands of glowing fire draining from Hilaris and into her father's dying form. Touching it with his armor's power, he felt the pulsing life that flowed through the strands—Hilaris' life—and the life-force draining out of Hilaris' body.

"Hil!" he shouted along with the other guys.

------

Sai watched the scene through horrified, disbelieving eyes. Halicyon's still form suddenly caught his eye. "Hali's glowing again?! What the HELL is going ON?!"

Sure enough, Halicyon's figure was glowing, a bright cheery gold that matched her armor. "Shanae!" she yelled, and suddenly the glow solidified into hundreds of golden, glowing, leafy vines of light that wrapped around the streams of fire.

"What on earth are you doing?!" Sai yelled.

"Trying to stop the flow of life!" Halicyon shouted back.

Ryo rounded on Rowen. "Ro, your kanji's life-force! DO SOMETHING!"

"But...what can I do?!" Ro answered frantically.

"Remember what we did before, how we drew upon Fauna's and Flora's armor-energy to defeat Calamity and Pestilence?" Sage answered hurriedly, pointing towards Inokian and Kionden. "Try drawing upon our energy and do the same thing that Halicyon's doing!"

"But what if it doesn't work?" Rowen asked fearfully.

"BUT WHAT IF IT DOES?!" Sai roared, losing patience. "Come on Ro, don't be a moron! You _like_ her, don't you?"

Rowen shot a look at Sai, who glared desperately back. Then he looked at Hilaris' and Halicyon's still forms. He nodded and concentrated, closing his eyes.

He gently searched for his armor's power, trying not to rush it, and found it abruptly, a pillar of navy-blue energy in the shape of a tower of wind. Using his armor, he reached towards his friends and felt them each as a similar pillar of energy, in different forms—Sai's was a tower of water, for example—harnessed the energy carefully, and tied them so that they would feed into his own power. He gasped and his eyes flew open at the electric jolt that ran through his body, stronger then the jolt he had felt when Hilaris and Halicyon had fed their power into him. Looking around, he saw that his armor, as well as the armors of his friends, was glowing, and that hundreds of energy-lines connected him to the other Ronins. Then he focused on Hilaris' dying body, and yelled "Inochi!"

Rainbow-colored beams of energy leaped from him, joining with Halicyon's power-strands to become a pure white. Rowen felt Halicyon trying desperately to hold on, and saw that Hilaris' life strands, "greased" by the brown energy of her dying father, kept slipping out of her drasp. Flora screamed in frustration.

_Here, let me help,_ he thought, and together they were able to stop Fauna's life-force from streaming into the blackness of death. The purple strands bucked and wriggled, trying to escape, but then they seemed to recognize Rowen as their master and quieted.

He firmly directed the purple fire back to Hilaris' near-lifeless form, and they willingly flowed back into their original body. Rowen then began pulling on the other strands like a rope, pulling them back from the dark abyss and guiding them back into Hilaris.

Halicyon and Rowen felt Hilaris' life force spring back into existence as the last bit of life-force seeped back into her. They slowly drew their power-ropes back into themselves, Rowen releasing his friend's energies back to where they came from.

Before the glow around Rowen's body fully died, though, he sent out a strand of energy to touch Talpa Gazun's body, checking for life. He found none.

He opened his eyes to find himself on his hands and knees. His friends were on similar positions on the floor. Halicyon was slowly getting to a kneeling position, and Hilaris lay where she had collapsed on the floor, still unconcious.

Inokian groaned and Kionden tried to get up. Ryo, Sage, Kento, and Sai turned, getting into defensive stances out of habit though they knew that they couldn't hold out for long.

Inokian sat up and looked at her hands, then slowly turned them over, looking amazed. Kionden got up slowly, with an expression of pure delight on his face. "So this is what it feels like to be free again," she whispered, getting to her feet.

Ryo blinked. That wasn't what he'd been expecting. "What? What do you mean?"

"When we were very small, we were kidnapped from our home world, Feranica," Kionden explained, "and we were possesed by spirits. At the time, we were too weak to fend the spirits off, and as we grew older we became used to their dominance. Now with Master Talpa gone, the spirits have no control over us because they drew all their power from Lord Talpa."

"So, what of your armors?" Sage asked, getting out of his defensive crouch. "Are they Base or Reserve Armors?"

"Neither," Inokian replied, a very small smile quirking the corners of her mouth. "They were creations of our controlling spirits, so that they could control us easier. See? We wear no such armor now." Sure enough, they wore no sub-armor; Inokian was dressed in a spring green kimono with a white obi, and Inokian wore maroon monk's robes with white trim. The only thing kept from their armors were their staves, and those, too, were different. Inokian's was made of ivory, and Kionden's was made of white marble, which held no black or brown streaks in it. Topping Inokian's stave was a dove with its wings outstretched, cast in gold, and a silver branch from an olive tree rested on top of Kionden's stave.

"So what will you do now?" asked Sai.

"First, we are going to disband the dynasty." Inokian grinned wolfishly. "Talpa Gazun was so jealous of his position that he killed any who might have risen to take his place, lest they rebel against him and try to take over the Dynasty during his rule. Everyone except us, of course, and our controlling spirits were tied to Talpa, so he had nothing to fear there. We were Master Talpa's speakers; if we announce that he has decided to disband the Dynasty before anyone learns of his death, none will think to argue."

"And what then?" Rowen asked, slowly getting to his feet. "The Dynasty destroyed hundreds of worlds, and killed their inhabitants."

"We never really killed the people," said Kionden. "We ripped the spirits from the people's bodies and encased them in controlling armors. That's why whenever you killed a Dynasty soldier, steam came out of it—the steam was the physical embodiment of the spirit that had been trapped inside."

"So what happened to the spirits we freed?" Kento inquired.

"Oh, we trapped them again and encased them in armor once more. However, if we freed all the spirits, they would make copies of their original bodies for themselves and fill them."

"So much for the people," said Rowen, relieved. "But what of the lands themselves?"

"Together, Kionden and I hold a lot of power," Inokian explained. "That's why Talpa kidnapped us. So if we work hard, we can heal all the worlds that were destroyed and free the spirits of the inhabitants of each world as we heal them. It's a lifetime of work, but it's worth it to repay the worlds for the horrible deeds we have done."

"Well, there's an end to it, then?" said Ryo, sheathing his katana.

"No," replied Sage. "What about the four other Base Armors, Darkness and the others?"

"Once the Dynasty is disbanded, the evil that poisons this world will lift, and with it the darkness that seized the souls of Illusion and the others will lift as well. When they 'come back to their senses', you might say, we will free them from the prisons Master Talpa threw them in." said Kionden. "Then they will be free to do as they wish."

"And how are we going to get home? For that matter, how did you guys—" Sai motioned towards Ryo, Kento, and Sage—"get here?"

"Oh, the ancient lent us this," Ryo said nonchalantly, showing them the ancient's staff.

"So we can use His staff to get home?" Halicyon asked, standing up.

"Yeah, I suppose," Ryo replied rather uncertainly.

"But how?" asked Rowen.

"Here, give me the staff," Inokian said, holding out her hand. Ryo handed over the staff to her.

Both she and Kionden held up the staff and closed their eyes in concentration. The staff's head glowed, and the rings began to clink against each other, slowly at first and then faster and faster. The siblings let go of the staff, and it floated over to rest in Ryo's hands, ringing even louder now and drowning out all thought. The Halicyon and the other Ronins circled the brilliant staff, Rowen holding the still-unconcious Hilaris in his arms. The Ronins' forehead kanji began to glow, and Kionden and Inokian both yelled "EARTH!", but the ringing was so loud that the Ronins could barely hear them. Then a brilliant flash of light flooded their eyes, and white swept over their senses before everything turned black.

------

Ryo opened his eyes to see Yuli's concerned face an inch away from his own. Ryo yelled and sat up. Yuli screamed and fled the room. As he made his hurried exit, the young boy ran smack into Sage, who laughed and shooed the boy out. "Good, you're awake," he said, relieved. "Mia's really annoyed at all of us because we wouldn't tell her what happened until you woke up. She threatened to throw us out several times...thank the gods that Halicyon's good at conflict resolution."

"That is so Mia," said Ryo, getting out of the soft bed that he was in. "Well, might as well tell her before she tries to actually hurt someone."

As the two walked down the stairs, Mia got looked towards him with a very annoyed look on her face. "What happened?" she demanded. "You're gone for hours, and suddenly there's this big flash of light and you guys fall from the ceiling of the living room."

"..." was his eloquent reply.

"Come_on_, I want an answer. They wouldn't tell me—" she motioned towards the other Ronins, who were grinning— "so you better tell me."

"Well, I don't know the entire story...why don't you let Hilaris tell you? She's good at storytelling," he said hurriedly.

A _very_ annoyed Mia turned towards Hilaris. "Spill." she ordered. Hilaris smiled and began.

"Well, first we went to the game reserve..."

* * *

Queen Hotaru (one of my best friends): And that's that, minna!  
Windsong: HEY! Who ever said I was done?!  
Avirilli: Hotaru-chan did, baka!  
Windsong: -Turns to Avirilli- I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP! That's it!! -grabs Avirilli, slaps some duct tape over her mouth, and forces her into her closet- There, much better.  
Queen Hotaru: That's not very nice.  
Windsong: She deserved that, believe me. Anyways! I'm not done! I'm going to write an epilogue, okay? And THEN I will be done! crosses arms  
Firestorm: what about the sequel?! HUH?!  
Windsong: oh, yeah, and I'll also consider whether I want to write a sequel or not, okay minna? But since Avirilli is not being helpful at all -glares at the closet- then it might take a while, so don't hold your breath. -Sees people start holding their breath- I SAID NOT TO! Why must I deal with bakas...!  
Firestorm, Queen Hotaru, Readers: WE'RE NOT BAKAS!  
Windsong: hides eep...gomen... 

Ja ne!

Windsong - windsong 137 at gmail dot com

"And then you realize that ultimately, life's just a bucket of fish." -Me


	12. Epilogue

Konnichiwa, minna! Welcome to the last chapter of Fur and Field! -bows- yes, after SEVERAL months of toil, writer's block, arguments with Avi, and overall hard work, it is finally complete!

Avirilli: no it isn't! You haven't even started writing it yet!  
Windsong: okay, so you're right.  
Avirilli: -beams-  
Windsong: DON'T say it!  
Avirilli: Disclaimers, my dear!  
Windsong: -sighs- Don't own Ronin Warriors or any of its beloved characters...I DO, however, own Hilaris, Halicyon, Kionden, Inokian, Serusin, Acitis, and anything else that I threw in this fic that wasn't in the original storyline. -realization hits her- Hey, Avi, since when do you start calling me "dear"?  
Avirilli: um...did I say that?  
Windsong: yes you did!  
Avirilli: oh...write the story!  
Windsong: -Glares- at Avirilli growl fine...

Enjoy!

* * *

Fur and Field_  
By Windsong  
_**Epilogue**  
Written May 2000

It had been several months since Talpa had been defeated, and autumn was coming quickly. The boys were going to start their second year of college in a few weeks, but before that they were fully enjoying their time off.

Kento and Ryo were busy playing one of Yuli's racing games on Playstation. "Haha! I'm ahead of you!"

"Not for long!" Ryo exclaimed gleefully as he took a shortcut and shot ahead of Kento.

"NOT FAIR!"

"Not my fault that you didn't know about it!"

"You play this game too much..."

Yuli came running in, saw that the two were playing his Playstation, and pouted. "Hey! That's MY Playstation! I want to play!"

Neither boy bothered looking at Yuli. "Didn't Mia ever teach you to share?"

"Fine, but I play next!"

"Yeah...whatever..." Kento bumped Ryo's car out of the way, flipping it over in the process.

"KENTO!"

"Not my fault that you were in the way!"

"Grrrrr..."

Suddenly, Yuli got impatient and tried to snatch Ryo's game controller. "YULI!"

"I WANNA PLAY!"

"WAIT YOUR TURN!"

While Ryo and Kento were playing/arguing with each other/convincing Yuli to STOP grabbing the controls out of their hands, Mia was busy watching TV with Sai, Sage was teaching Halicyon how to meditate, Hilaris was on one of the balconies of Mia's house, and Rowen was...well...

As Hilaris looked out at the sunset, Rowen snuck up on her. "BOO!"

"AAAH!" She jumped and whirled before she realized who it was. "Why you little—" She tackled him and started tickling him.

"ACK! Okay, okay, you win! GET OFF!" With a final poke, she got up and pulled him onto his feet.

"Don't scare me like that!" Hilaris scolded.

"Don't tickle me like that, either!"

"You started it!"

"..."

Rowen leaned on the railing next to Hilaris, who was looking out over the forest. "Do you know when dinner's going to be served?" she asked.

He snorted, amused. "Not for a while. Sai's in laughing fits over some BBC show. We should have never gotten cable..."

Hilaris laughed. "There are some pretty good cable shows. Maybe we should just cancel BBC."

"And risk Sai 1, trying to kill us, 2, never cooking for us again, or maybe even both? No thank you!"

"If he stopped cooking, Kento would whine so much that he would have to cook or risk going deaf."

"Unless he just moves out."

"We'd tape him to the floor first."

"Or Kento would sit on him."

"Or Halicyon would glomp him."

"Maybe all three."

A warm wind brushed by them. Hilaris smiled, and went back to watching the stars peep out, one by one. "Where's Pegasus, again?"

"That one, over there," Rowen said, pointing to the place the constellation would be in a few moments. "And that one over there's Perseus, who killed the Gorgon Medusa. I can't believe that none of these constellations are in Serusin's sky."

"Nope, nary a one. But ours are just as beautiful."

"I wish I could go to Serusin with you. Do you really have to go soon?"

"Yes," Hilaris sighed. "Once Inokian and Kionden sent word that they had healed it, it's been tugging at me, calling me back. You don't know how homesick Halicyon and I have been ever since we left Serusin. It's a lot like here...except that we don't have many big cities, and not many continents, just two and a couple of archipelagos. And we don't have so many languages—everyone speaks Serusinian, and people who visit from other worlds use translating machines. But overall, it's mainly farmlands or forests—people own land, and not a lot of people live in apartments. Also," Hilaris grinned, "We have to put the World Gates back up! Since we destroyed them, no one can go through them, and that's really hurting the economy."

"Sounds picturesque."

"It nearly is. Hey, Ro-chan, why don't you come with me and Halicyon to Serusin?"

"I'd love to, but..."

"I know. It isn't your world, right?"

"Yeah. Earth—Tokyo, to be exact—is the only place I've known my entire life. I've never gone travelling, you know that? Not even to England, though Sai asked me once. Going to another world—I don't think I could stand it."

"You've been to Acitis," Hilaris pointed out.

"That doesn't count, we were kidnapped there."

Hilaris sighed. "You wouldn't consider it? Not even to visit?"

"I already have. No, I can't. So when are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow."

"Aah, so soon?"

"I don't think Hali and I could stand it a moment longer."

Rowen sighed. "Well, don't you dare leave until you say goodbye."

"Aw, miss us already?" Hilaris poked him.

"Stop that!"

"Why?"

"It's annoying!"

"So?"

"Arg..."

There was silence for a while. "So, what's that one?" She pointed towards another group of stars.

"Andromeda. She was tied to a rock as a sacrifice to Posiedon when Perseus saved her."

Hilaris glanced down, and saw two figures walking towards the house. "Look! Sage and Halicyon are coming back! I guess they had enough meditation."

"Let's go in, then. It's getting kinda chilly."

"Yeah." The duo vanished inside.

------

Morning came, and Hilaris and Halicyon prepared to leave. "Hey, Hilaris! Will you hurry up?! I want to GO!" Halicyon bellowed from the back of her horse—they had gotten to the world gate via horseback, and they were returning the same way.

"So eager to leave?" Sai asked, looking up to Halicyon.

"Sorry, kiddo, but I really want to see my family again. It's been about a year."

"Kiddo?"

"Kiddo. Is there a problem?"

"I haven't heard that word in ages is all."

Hilaris came out. "Jeez, so _impatient_." Halicyon glared at her. Hilaris smirked back.

As Hilaris mounted up, Halicyon's horse started walking. Rowen asked, "When are you going to pay a visit?"

"Don't worry," She called over her shoulder as she urged her horse into a walk. "By the time of the first autumn storm next year, I'll be back to tickle you again."

"Bring your_self_ back, but leave the tickling behind, _please_."

"Sayonara!" Hilaris and Halicyon called.

"Sayonara!" The group called back, waving frantically.

The two went into a gallop, and quickly dissapeared from sight.

"You think they'll keep their promise?" Sai asked.

"Have they ever broken their promises?" Sage replied calmly.

"No..."

"Sai, when's lunch?" Kento whined.

Sai sighed. "Soon, you big ox."

The Ronin Warriors turned and went inside.

* * *

Yay! I'm done! -dances- I might write a sequel, I'm not sure. To write a sequel, you have to get ideas first...-glares at Avi- Ah, I'll think of something. Well, this is Windsong, signing off...for now! -laughs sadistically as Avi hides in a corner-

Ja ne!!! -waves-

Windsong - windsong137 at gmail dot com

"This world is not conclusion." -Emily Dickinson

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